Telangana, AP govts flayed for blinking at liquor ban

Hyderabad: Coming down heavily on both Telugu-speaking State governments, members of the Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA) and State Committee for anti-liquor, under the chairmanship of Lakshma Reddy, State Chairman of Jana Chaitanya Vedika, attacked the administration for looking the other way as far as total prohibition is concerned.

Speaking at the round table conference on anti-liquor policy held at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram here on Saturday, Justice Ambati Lakshmana Rao asserted that successive State Governments did not have the courage to implement total prohibition in the States. "Meek attempts were made in this direction by those heading the government in the undivided State a decade or two ago, only to lift the ban later under pressure," he said.

He appreciated the stand taken by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who has enforced a total ban on liquor in his State and demanded that the State governments in the two Telugu-speaking States should take cognizance of the Supreme Court directive and evict the liquor establishments on the highways. He further stressed that public consumption of liquor should be stopped so that the growing up adolescent youth do not go astray.

Lakhma Reddy, Convener of the anti-liquor movement in the State, said, “the two Telugu-speaking States are encouraging liquor shops. On one hand, AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been giving undertakings that these shops would be curtailed, but on the other hand he is surreptitiously encouraging the establishment of such shops."