Kamal Nath hits back at Chouhan over liquor shops in MP

Hitting back at former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over his "Madira Pradesh" remark, Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Friday claimed that the number of liquor shops increased during BJP's regime in the state.

The Chief Minister wrote a letter to the BJP leader stated, "It is a lie that no new liquor shops were opened during your government. In 2003-04, there were 2221 wine shops but it increased to 2770 during BJP rule in 2010-11. Foreign liquor shops were 581 in 2003-04 which went up to 916 in 2010-11. During Congress rule, there were around 2792 country-made/liquor shops while the number increased to 3683 in 2010-11."

Kamal Nath said that Chouhan's claim that around 2500 shops are being opened because of ''sub -liquor shops'' and police is "baseless".

He asked the BJP leader if women are safe in Uttar Pradesh claiming that the state has more liquor shops than Madhya Pradesh. The Chief Minister said there are five shops per one lakh population in Madhya Pradesh while there are 12 shops in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier in the day, Chouhan said that the Kamal Nath-led state government's decision to allow liquor license holders to open sub-shops by paying extra will turn the state into "Madira Pradesh".

"This decision will make Madhya Pradesh 'Madira Pradesh'. When our government was there, we had decided that no new liquor shops will be opened in the state and we had even started closing the liquor shops which were already there at that time... Don't take such decisions which will destroy the state," he said.