THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has ruled out reconsidering the changes made in the liquor policy.
Mr Chandy made his stand clear in a statement released to the media after the Congress legislature party meeting at the Cliff House here on Monday.
Mr Chandy said the government was encouraged to change the policy due to the social reality and not because of any external pressure, as alleged by KPCC chief V.M. Sudheeran.
The statement was also an indirect reply to the party chief as 31 out of 38 MLAs who attended the CLP meeting criticised Mr Sudheeran’s views. Mr Chandy said that there was no going back on the policy.
“Beer and wine parlour licences were granted to the bars to rehabilitate the jobless bar workers. In the next decade, the government’s focus would be on less alcohol content.
The problems encountered by the tourism sector and bar employees prompted the change in the policy,” he said.
He referred to the suicide of 10 bar employees in the aftermath of 418 bars being closed down. According to the tourism and labour secretaries’ report, 24,787 bar employees had been left jobless.
During the current tourism season, 5,354 bookings were cancelled which led to a loss of Rs 6.12 crore. He rued that our strong contender on the tourism front, Sri Lanka, gained from the loss suffered by the state.
“The tourism sector occupies the second place in Kerala’s revenue expenditure with Rs 22, 926 crore. The report by the two secretaries’ states that most of the foreign tourists prefer to have beer and wine. It was after going through their report that changes were made in the liquor policy,” added Mr Chandy.
The government decided to make changes only after holding detailed talks and considering practicability and social interests.
He added that nobody could pin down the government with controversies when there were many issues to be solved in the state, which would be the government’s priority in the coming days. An amicable solution would be found for the land issue of tribals, KSRTC pension, fall in the price of rubber etc, he said.
