Minister P. Thangamani, who handles the portfolio for Prohibition, on Tuesday informed the Legislative Assembly that the government was committed to its policy of introducing liquor prohibition in a phased manner in Tamil Nadu.
The Minister made the statement in response to DMK legislator T. Mano Thangaraj (Padmanabhapuram), who raised the issue of prohibition. Mr. Thangamani said unlike the DMK, the AIADMK government believed in introducing phased prohibition.
To Mr. Thangaraj’s contention that the State government was increasingly dependent on revenue generated from liquor sales, Mr. Thangamani said under the AIADMK regime the business hours for TASMAC run liquor outlets have come down by two hours and 1,000 liquor shops were shut down on the orders of the Chief Minister.
Mr. Thangamani pointed out that even during the erstwhile DMK regime the revenue generated through liquor sales was high. Since the price of liquor had gone up since then, it was naturally reflecting high on the revenue generated, he contended.
“There is no change in our policy of introducing phased prohibition,” he reiterated.
