Thiruvananthapuram, May 26 (IANS): New Kerala Excise Minister M.V.Govindan on Wednesday ruled out home delivery of liquor and beer following a huge demand for it, on account of the state-wide lockdown.

With the daily Covid tally rising substantially, the state government decided to close down all liquor vends, both government-run and private, on April 26.

"Our policy is not total prohibition but to promote abstinence from liquor. We do not plan to have any programme of delivering liquor at doorsteps and hence, it will not take place," said Govindan, while taking part in a phone in programme of a leading TV channel.

His response came to a caller who said that if home delivery is done, it will provide jobs to at least 100 youths in the vicinity of every liquor vend.

Incidentally during the 2020 lockdown, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government had come out with an app for all the liquor buyers and each person who wanted liquor got an alert to reach a particular liquor vend, including bars, to buy their stock.

This facility was stopped after the lockdown was relaxed.

A study on the profile of liquor users in the state reveal that around 32.9 lakh people, 29.8 lakh men and 3.1 lakh women, out of the 3.34 crore population in the state consume liquor.

Around five lakh people of these consume liquor on a daily basis, and among them, 83,851 people, including 1,043 women, are addicted to alcohol, according to state government statistics.

Incidentally for fund-starved Kerala, revenue on liquor and beer is among the biggest cash cows and in the last fiscal, amounted to over Rs 15,000 crore.