"No govt proposal to provide poor consumers quality liquor at

With his purported comments on plans to provide poor consumers quality liquor at cheap rates drawing flak, Karnataka Excise Minister H Nagesh on Tuesday clarified there was no such proposal before the government.

"It is true that there is a demand for supply of good quality liquor at low price.

There was also a proposal in this regard since 2013, but after becoming Excise Minister, no such proposal has been submitted before the government," he said in a statement.

The Minister clarified that he had only stated there has been such a demand for long.

"But my statement has been published contrary to the fact in certain sections of the media. I want to reiterate that there is no proposal at present before the government on providing cheap or subsidized liquor," he said.

Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters, the Minister had spoken about the department considering supply of high quality liquor at cheap rates for the sake of the poor.

"....We will discuss,we will take good decisions, because I too want to do something that is new....want to give cheaper drinks of high quality, this is in my mind," he said.

The Minister said the poor too have to live right and collecting money should not be the only intention.

"...we want to experiment at distilleries, test at labs and then we have to leave it to the market, not abruptly, we should not do it for business."