Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Amit Kapoor, on Tuesday, asked the J&K administration to withdraw its decision to allow departmental stores in the urban areas of the Union Territory to sell beer. The step, he warned, would turn Jammu, which is a city of temples, into a liquor den.
In a statement, Kapoor alleged that the Central government and the BJP are bent upon turning the temple city of Jammu into a liquor den. He said in the meeting of the Administrative Council held under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, sale of beer in departmental stores in urban areas has been approved.
He said the decision shows that the government is bent upon making the youth of Jammu and Kashmir drug addicts just to make profit from the liquor mafia. Pointing at the liquor shops opened at every street of Jammu for increased revenue, he said the time is not far when beer will be sold at departmental stores.
Kapoor claimed that the infrastructure of education and health in Jammu and Kashmir is crumbling, but the government is not paying heed to it. He said when the number of liquor shops in Jammu division was increased under the new excise policy, people protested a lot, but the government did not pay any heed.
The Aam Aadmi Party strongly opposes this decision and demands that it should be withdrawn at the earliest, Kapoor added.