The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council Temperance Commission has decided to hold a day-long ‘Nilpu Samaram’ against the reported government move to change the liquor policy.
According to a statement issued in the name of Bishop Remigius Inchananiyil, State chairman of the Temperance Commission, the commission will launch an agitation in October at Ernakulam against the policy of the LDF government, which, according to him, had upset the policy decision to shut down 10 per cent of the IMFL outlets of Bevco and Consumerfed every year, “a policy which was the earned by Kerala society through struggles for ban against liquor”. It said 1,001 activists belonging to anti-liquor struggles would start the ‘Nilpu Samaram at 4 p.m. on October 2.
It had earlier been decided to shut down 10 per cent of the outlets every Gandhi Jayanti Day. “To do away with it amounts to irreverence to the memory of Gandhiji,” it said. Alleging something mysterious behind the change of heart, the press note said the anti-liquor campaign would resist it at any cost.
In a related but separate move, the Temperance Committee of the Church of South India (CSI) called for closing down 10 per cent of the liquor outlets on Gandhi Jayanti Day. It would take out a march to the district headquarters in Kottayam on October 3.
