Vested interests want to derail new liquor policy: Congress

The ruling Congress party Friday urged the Kerala government to remain alert against certain vested interests who have opposed the state's new liquor policy that aims at complete prohibition by 2023.

In a letter to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, state Congress chief V.M. Sudheeran said liquor mafias were out to play spoilsport and this should be seen from the seizure of 10,000 liters of spirit early this week from Kollam.

"The state excise, police and other departments should be alerted as vested interests are out to create a liquor tragedy by supplying spirit with the aim of torpedoing our state government's new liquor policy," he wrote in the letter.

"Hence, all should be very alert and the borders of our state should be closely monitored," he added.

Last month, the state government formulated a liquor policy under which all the 710 bars in the state will be closed to achieve total prohibition in the next 10 years. From the next fiscal, liquor would be available only in around 16 five-star hotels operating in the state.

From Oct 2 this year, all Sundays will be dry days. Out of the 383 state-owned retail liquor shops, 10 percent will close down each year paving the way for Kerala to achieve complete prohibition by Oct 2, 2023.

Over the years, Kerala has seen a few liquor tragedies and this happened mostly due to intense rivalry between groups engaged in the transport of spirit from neighbouring states.