Stating that the most practical path to Prohibition was its implementation through gradual phases, Kerala’s Congress-led UDF on Thursday unveiled its liquor policy which envisaged freeing the State, known in the sobriquet of God’s Own Country, from the devil’s grip of booze in the next ten years.
limiting permission to run bars to five-star hotels, shutting down ten percent of the total retail outlets every year and turning Sundays into no-booze days are some of the steps the UDF has proposed to the Government to make the State liquor-free, according to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is also the chairman of the ruling coalition.
The 418 bars which were closed down on April 1 last for lack of required facilities would remain closed, the remaining 312 functioning bars would not be allowed to reopen, no new bar licences would be issued and no new retail outlets would open in the State, Chandy said after UDF leadership meet in Thiruv-ananthapuram on Thursday.
“Only five-star bars will operate in Kerala from April 1, 2015. The 418 closed bars will not reopen and the other functioning bars will be closed. There will be 52 more dry days in a year. These are the steps the UDF wants to be implemented to eradicate the evil of booze which has been destroying the society, families and individuals so far,” Chandy said.
Criticisms have already come up that the UDF move is intended to promote the interests of corporate hotel operators and to reserve life’s enjoyments to the elite of the society. Former Chief Minister AK Antony had faced similar criticisms in 1996 when he banned arrack, the cheap, colourless alcohol which was a favorite of the poor and lower-income group boozers of Kerala.
It is interesting to note that it was reportedly a confrontation between Chandy and PCC chief VM Sudheeran, group realignments in the Congress and pressures from the Church and UDF partners like the Muslim league on the Chief Minister over the vexed issue of reopening of the 418 closed bars which had led to Thursday’s UDF decision.
Chandy, who stood for the reopening of the closed bars – at least some of them – arguing about the impracticality of keeping them closed and the Government’s difficulties in facing the cases related to them in the court, is said to be the loser in the bar war but Chandy somehow managed to create a feeling that the proposals came from none other than himself.
The Government is standing to lose almost 25 per cent of its annual revenue through the gradual stoppage of the liquor business. The Government had earned Rs7,241 crore in 2012-13 by way of taxes, duties, etc from liquor sector. But Finance Minister KM Mani said, “We will find some other way to earn that much money.”
As per the UDF proposals, one percent of the total revenue of the Kerala State Beverages Corporation, the State-owned monopoly liquor distributor which is running 337 retail outlets, will have to be used for promoting anti-liquor awareness programmes. On-campus campaigns against booze would be augmented, Chandy said.
The Chief Minister said that five percent of the total revenue of the Beverages Corporation would be used for the formation of a Kerala Alcohol Education, Research and Rehabilitation Fund. He asked Keralites working in the State and outside to contribute a day’s income to the rehabilitation of alcohol addicts “who deserve our compassion”.
The UDF meet, however, wanted the traditional sector of toddy – the liqueur extracted from coconut and palmyra trees – to be protected but it asked the Government to ensure steps to keep out spurious toddy from the market. The meeting also wanted the Government to adopt measures to protect and rehabilitate the people who would lose jobs in the State’s migration to Prohibition.