Gujarat government rejects Mallya's suggestion to rethink prohibition policy

Ahmedabad, July 11 (ANI): Rejecting liquor baron Viajy Mallya's suggestion to rethink the state's prohibition policy, the Gujarat government said, that he should look at his liquor business and keep out of state's affairs.

With the death toll of state's worst liquor tragedy nearing 130, Mallya, the owner of United Breweries, had said the enforcement of prohibition is becoming a mockery, which leads to illegal, unhygienic and unsupervised production of poisonous cocktails that claim innocent lives, and called the politicians to rethink over the prohibition policy in the interest of the people.

State's Health Minister Jay Narayan Vyas, said Mallya's statement is unfortunate and coming at an inopportune time. Mallya being a liquor baron should not have commented on the issue at all, Vyas added.

Vyas said state's like Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Delhi, which do not practice prohibition have had far larger tragedies. The phenomenon of consuming spurious liquor is a social and poverty related issue.

As a large number of people are still being brought to hospitals, Gujarat police suspect that a some quantity of same batch of the illicit liquor may still be circulating in parts of the city.

Gujarat is the country's only state where sale and consumption of liquor is banned as a mark of respect to Mahatma Gandhi.

Ahmedabad tragedy is the biggest hooch tragedy in the history of Gujarat after the 1989 Vadodara hooch tragedy, which claimed 132 lives. (ANI)