Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala’s opinion that liquor policy didn’t do any good to UDF during recent Assembly polls has come as a shot in the arm of CPM which is waiting for an opportunity to roll back the review the abkari policy. The CPM sought to know from Congress leadership whether what Chennithala stated was UDF position. The Left leadership is elated over his views which are clearly against the well stated position of KPCC president V M Sudheeran.
Chennithala’s statement comes close on the heels of the strong criticism unleashed by finance minister T M Thomas Isaac and tourism minister A C Moideen against the UDF liquor policy. Both ministers had pointed out that the flawed policy had wreaked havoc in tourism sector. Just last week, tourism minister A C Moideen shot of a letter to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and excise minister T P Ramakrishnan, on the tourism sector crisis. He quoted the findings of a study carried out by tourism department which revealed that the state once considered as one of the best destinations for holding business meetings and conferences was no longer in the reckoning now.
He said the state’s image of top tourist and business conference destination had taken a severe hit. Those in tourism sector allege that UDF’s excise policy had destroyed the tourism sector. Hundreds of conferences which used to be held in Kerala, were now moving away to Goa, Rajasthan and even neighbouring countries.
Meetings Incentive, Conference and Exhibition (MICE) tourism segment has been hit hard. Sponsors of such events were now heading for Sri Lanka and Thailand which promised all facilities. Last year the tourism department had targeted to attract over 1.37 crore tourists including 12 lakh foreign tourists. However, it could get only 12465571 domestic and 977479 foreign tourists.
