Kerala: Oppn walks out over hooch tragedy

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 5: The Congress-led Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) staged a walk-out in the Kerala Assembly today protesting against the government's liquor policy.

The walkout came after Speaker K Radhakrishnan denied leave for the adjournment motion sought to be moved by Prof K V Thomas (Cong) on the subject in the light of state Excise Minister P K Gurudasan's clarification that the government would take all steps to ensure the quality of toddy to be sold through toddy shops in the state.

Raising the issue of spurious toddy in the state, Prof Thomas alleged that it was because of the wrong liquor policy of the government that caused the loss of three lives in the liquor tragedy at Avaneeswaram, near Pulaur in Kollam district on August 28.

He alleged that the Excise Minister was the first accused in the case, as he was responsible for issuing licences to nearly 1,000 toddy shops in the state, even though it had not sufficient coconuts for toddy tapping to supply the required quantity of toddy to these outlets.

In his reply, Mr Gurudasan said the government had taken all steps to check the activities of liquor-mafias and added steps were taken to close down those toddy shops which did not have sufficient toddy.

He said it was still not confirmed whether the toddy consumed at Avaneeswaram contained Methyl Alcohol. Only after the report came out, it could be confirmed, he added.

Stating that the liquor tragedy was a ''social-issue'', he sought the Opposition's support to wipe out liquor tragedies.

Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy charged that the government issued licences to new toddy shops without following the guidelines that a minimum of 50 coconuts should be tapped in the area. However, in many areas, where the new shops were allotted, not even two coconut trees were being tapped.

He asked the Excise Minister, whether the government would be ready to take stock of the number of coconut trees being tapped in the state and cancel the licence of shops if the number of trees were not corresponding to the number of shops, as stipulated by the government.

Before walking out of the Assembly, he said it was because of the wrong liquor policy of the government that frequent liquor tragedies were occurring in the state.

UNI