New Indian Express

UDUPI, Mar 25: Members of Udupi District Wholesale Wine Merchants and Employees’ Association on Friday took out a rally demanding withdrawal of the budgetary proposal to cancel CL1 licences (Civil Licence 1).

Hundreds of employees participated in the procession and presented a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.

Rakesh Kumar Shetty an office-bearer said if the Government withdrew the licence, about 250 employees in Udupi district, 5,000 employees in the state would lose their jobs.

The family members including school-going children would also suffer if the decision is implemented. As many of the employees are middle aged, they may not get other jobs elsewhere.

The experience in the liquor industry would not be counted for employment in other sectors, he added.

Shetty said that officers of the Karnataka State Beverages Corporation had visited Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and had studied the distribution system there.

The report of this study has been submitted to former chief minister S M Krishna.

Consequently, he had dropped the idea of cancelling CL1 licence. Former finance minister Siddaramaiah had also followed the same path.

Shetty requested the Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister B S Yediyurappa to cancel the withdrawal of CL1, proposed in the budget.

‘‘Finance Minister claims to earn a revenue of Rs 178 crore annually. But he has forgotten that there is no established infrastructure to carry out the business. Setting up the same would require crore of rupees.

After spending on infrastructure, the government cannot save more than Rs 40 crore. At present the government earns Rs 8 lakh from each wholesale dealer every year. This comes to around Rs 40 crore in the State,’’ he said.

‘‘The officials have misled the Finance Minister,’’ he added.

Office-bearers Narayana, Sharath Kumar Shetty, Sathyanath Rao, Uday Kumar Shetty, Diwakar, Prabhakar, Dharmendra, T Dayanath and others participated in the protest rally.