K Narayana Swamy

VIJAYAWADA: The new liquor policy being formulated by the government will lead to complete luquor ban in the state. The plan will be finalised by chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy in the next ten days. This was revelaed by minister for excise and commercial taxes K Narayana Swamy in a meeting with district excise heads.

Narayana Swamy said the aim of the meeting was to discuss the recurrent problems faced by the ground-level staff of excise department. “Though the new policy will take some time, we have initiated the process of liquor prohibition with the eradication of belt shops,” the minister pointed out.

Narayana Swamy went on to say that the previous government had made false claims over eradication of belt shops and that TDP leaders had gained from flourishing belt shops.

Another menace that the excise department is focusing on is that of arrack brewing, rampant in the two Godavari districts, agency areas and the areas sharing border with other states.

The present liquor policy will expire by the end of June and new policy should be notified from July 1.

The minister hinted that the new policy may downsize the number of liquor shops. He appealed to everyone to support the cause of complete liquor prohibition.

