Daijiworld Media Network-Ballary (RJP)
Ballary, Dec 18: “The population in the state has increased. Accordingly number of liquor shops should also be increased. The government needs to consider whether it should permit the opening of new liquor outlets and bars or not,” said chief minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday, December 17.
The chief minister was speaking to reporters at Jindal airport in Ballary.
“Liquor consumption has not gone down after the government banned cheap liquor. Instead unauthorised production and supply of liquor are on the rise. We have not issued new licences for bars and liquor shops for the past 23 years. Hence the illegal trade has gone up. To stop this, the government is thinking about issuing new licences. But we never said that licences will be issued. We feel that the liquor shops should increase as per the increase in population.” Siddaramaiah added.
The state excise minister Manohar H Tahasildar on December 13 had said that “The chief minister still wants to make available cheap liquor in the state. But he wants to make sure that it is not of inferior quality. So we are trying to know whether it is possible to get quality liquor at a cheaper price. Hence we are talking to different liquor manufacturers.”
But the next day the chief minister had denied this saying there was absolutely no plan to introduce cheap liquor again. Cheap liquor or not, liquor issue has reached the chief minister level.