THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran on Wednesday said the LDF government does not require Oommen Chandy or V.M. Sudheeran’s special permission to decide its liquor policy. He said the LDF had mentioned in its election manifesto that it was against UDF’s prohibition policy and sought people’s mandate for a policy that laid stress on abstinence. On the other hand, UDF’s single point campaign was on liquor policy for which it sought people’s support.
His reaction came in the wake of Congress leaders warning that the government will face peoples wrath if it changed UDF’s abkari policy. “Poll results indicated that people rejected UDF’s policy and welcomed LDF stand. We have already made it clear that the present government will implement its election manifesto in true letter and spirit and a pragmatic liquor policy is one of the main promises,” he added.
Mr Kanam said LDF government was against making any changes in the present policy at this stage. “We will come out with a new policy for the next financial year. Even the Supreme Court has made it clear that liquor policy can be announced annually and it was the right of the state government to come out with its policy,” he said. The CPI leader said the UDF policy, instead of bringing down liquor consumption, had led to huge increase in consumption of hard liquor, beer and wine. This itself pointed to the failure of the policy. “LDF will come out with a policy unanimously. Our manifesto was finalised after detailed discussions in LDF. Our government is committed to implement the promises made in the manifesto,” he added.
