: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday strongly hinted that he favoured a less restrictive liquor policy that emphasized temperance over total prohibition.
Inaugurating the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking here, Mr. Mr. Vijayan said alcohol or drug dependency undoubtedly retarded social progress.
However, the rider was “when imposing restrictions (on addictive substances like alcohol), the authorities should be mindful of the impact such controls would have on society in the future. Or else, the curbs would yield no good,” he said.
The Chief Minister’s words assume significance against the backdrop of reports that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government would revamp the State’s liquor policy.
They were also in tune with the LDF’s pre-election stance that total prohibition (the central plank of the previous Congress government’s contentious liquor policy) was impractical.
Awareness campaign
Narcotic drugs and bootleg liquor were still freely available in society. His government has upped enforcement to reduce their easy availability. It now planned to launch awareness campaigns to reduce demand.
The government hoped to enlist the help of students, teachers, parents and voluntary organisations for its campaigns against substance abuse. The Chief Minister also stressed the need to generate more local-level intelligence on the inflow of drugs. and illicit liquor. The Excise Commissioner’s number was now publicly available.
Excise Minister P. Ramakrishnan; Excise Commissioner Rishiraj Singh; V.S. Sivakumar, MLA; Additional Chief Secretary (Taxes) P. Marapandiyan; Additional Excise Commissioner (Administration) K. Jeevan Babu; were present.
