Naidu lashes out at new excise policy
Lashing out at the new excise policy announced by the state government on Monday, Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday dismissed the policy as mere eyewash, saying it would neither alter the existing syndicate system nor control the liquor mafia in the state.
Addressing a media conference here, the former CM pointed out that after a lengthy month-long exercise, the government had finally come up with a system replacing the auction of shops with a lottery process.
Mr Naidu was quick to add, “This is no improvement. It will not bring down the skyrocketing liquor prices or control the mafia. Groups of people will apply for bulk shops and even in a lottery system there is a possibility of forming a syndicate.” The TD chief demanded that instead of the lottery system, the government should take over the trade and run the shops like in Delhi and Kerala to prevent private individuals grabbing the shops and running ‘belt shops’ all over the state. Mr Naidu also criticised the lack of measures to check the growing liquor menace and said that there was no reduction in the working hours of shops. Nor was any awareness being disseminated against the consumption of liquor.
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