Citing an audio clip of their union leader asking all bar owners in the state to give Rs 2.50 lakh each for “favourable” liquor policies, KPCC president K Sudhakaran demanded the resignation of Excise Minister M B Rajesh.
Sudhakaran said here on Friday that the audio clip exposed the new liquor policy under which Rs 25 crore would be extorted from the bar owners as kickbacks. “From 900 bars in the state, Rs five lakh is being thus collected,” he added.
He alleged that a huge amount of money was collected from the bar owners before the Lok Sabha polls, and now the remaining amount is being collected. The government move, he said is to allow bar owners to make huge profits by doing away with the dry day policy, opening pubs in IT parks and extending the bar timings.
The senior Congress leader said the new liquor policy of the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Government in the state would drown Kerala in liquor. This is the most dreaded move that would throw the young into alcoholism, and thereby ruin their future.
Sudhakaran recounted how the LDF leaders raised a hue and cry when bar owners had claimed that the then finance minister KM Mani took a Rs 1 crore bribe from them. He had to resign following the allegation.
The bar bribe allegation against then finance mister KM Mani had rocked the UDF government led by Oommen Chandy. The allegation of the same nature seems to be causing a headache for the incumbent LDF Government in the state.
The audio clip purportedly sent by an office bearer of the Federation of Kerala Bar Association, a collective of bar owners, found its way to the media in which their leader was heard saying each bar owner needs to pay Rs 2.5 lakh to fulfil their demands such as scrapping of the dry day policy and extending bar working hours from 11 pm to 12 pm. It’s not a coincidence that these suggestions are being discussed by the state government ahead of the formulation of its liquor policy for the year.
In the voice clip, reportedly sent by the outfit’s Idukki district president Ani Mon to the members of the district during the executive meeting of the bar owners held in Kochi on Thursday, the speaker can be heard saying that a new liquor policy would be declared after the elections and there would be many favourable changes such as scrapping the dry day policy.
Following the leak of the audio clip, the Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly, VD Satheesan, also demanded the resignation of Minister of Excise M B Rajesh alleging a scam in the LDF Government’s move to tweak the state’s liquor policy in favour of bar owners.
Speaking to media persons in Kochi, Satheesan alleged that the call for fund collection would not have taken place without the approval from the government.
The senior Congress leader said that there was no consultation with the Opposition on the proposed amendments to the liquor policy, including the move to open pubs in IT parks in the state even though “we had opposed the move to lift the dry day on the first of all months”, he said.
He said the LDF Government, which came to power in 2016 with the promise to reduce the availability of liquor, gave licence to 669 bars. In its second term, the government has already issued licence to 130 bars. In all these, allotment of bars resulted in widespread corruption, he alleged.
BJP state president K Surendran called it Delhi model bar-bribery scam. Alleging that all this is in the knowledge of the chief minister, he said Pinarayi Vijayan should resign before he meets the fate of Arvind Kejriwal.
Union Minister V Muralidharan said the chief minister should clarify whether he asked for a bribe from the bar owners. He also demanded a probe into the revelations by a Central agency.
Meanwhile, State Excise Minister MB Rajesh has written a letter to DGP Sheikh Darvesh Sahib demanding an inquiry into the controversial bar-bribery allegation in the state. He said the state government would take stringent action against those trying to solicit funds in exchange for favourable liquor policy
Rebutting the allegations, he said the government had not initiated any discussions regarding the purported plans to abolish the ‘dry day’ norm in the state.