Govt showing favouritism to Midas Distillery: DMK chiefr

Chennai, Apr 18 (UNI) Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President M Karunanidhi today charged the Jayalalithaa government with showing undue favouritism to Midas Distilleries, allegedly run by 'benamies' of Ms Sasikala, aide of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, resulting in huge loss of revenue to the exchequer.

In a seven-page statement, Mr Karunanidhi gave a detailed account of how the company came into existence after the AIADMK came to power in May 2001 and how it was given a free hand to enhance production capacity and earn revenue at the cost of the exchequer.

He alleged the government had scrapped private retail vending of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and entrusted it to Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation only to benefit Midas Distillery.

While production limit was fixed for other distileries like Mohan, Siva, Balaji, MP and Shigal, there was no such limit for Midas and it was allowed to produce as many lakh cases as it could, he said.

When government supplied limited spirit, basic raw material for IMFL production to other companies, no limit was fixed for Midas Distilleries, he said, seeking to know why such favouritism was shown.

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