The lure for money from alcohol is so heady that no government has been able to resist it. Recently, the Kamal Nath-led government allowed liquor contractors to open sub-shops in urban and rural areas in the state. The government officials claimed that the move was aimed at increasing revenue for the state hit by a cash crunch.
Under the new order, existing liquor shop owners, after paying licence fee, can open a sub-shop five kilometres away in urban areas and 10 kilometres away in rural areas. The increased density of liquor vends will ensure tipplers don't have to travel long to access their drink. The Kamal Nath government expects to raise Rs 13,000 crore through alcohol sales.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, which ruled the state for three terms, had found it hard to avoid tapping liquor sales for higher revenue. For all moralistic pretensions the BJP kept liberalising the liquor flow in the state under one pretext or the other. The change of regime, however, has again revived the BJP prudish views.
On Friday, Shivraj Singh Chouhan wrote a letter to Kamal Nath claiming that the move was a "New Year gift to the liquor mafia in the state". He slammed the Kamal Nath-led state government and said allowing liquor license holders to open sub-shops by paying extra will turn the state into "Madira Pradesh". Kamal Nath rebutted the charge saying MP has five liquor shops per lakh population as compared to 12 per lakh in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.
Even at the risk of sounding bizarre cooperative minister Govind Singh responded to Chouhan saying there should be no ban on liquor. He said liquor was not being forced on anyone and those buying it were doing so voluntarily. Singh said a man is free and has the right to eat and drink whatever he likes.
"Kamal Nath government has decided to open a sub-shop for the purpose of stopping the illegal sale of liquor and to compensate the revenue loss," Singh said, "If Chouhan was so worried he should have implemented liquor ban in the state during his tenure."
The Shivraj government's flip-flop on excise policy often caused friction within the party and incurred the ire of RSS. Chouhan had announced in 2011 that there would be no new liquor shop in the state. However, his decision to allow sale of Indian made foreign liquor at country liquor shops across the state in January 2014 met strong criticism across the state, forcing him to withdraw his move.
The amended provision allowed a person who has an annual income of Rs 10 lakh or more to store up to 100 bottles of liquor in his house. For that, he was supposed to take a licence by paying Rs 10,000.
The decision led to a protest from public as reflected in the media and the Opposition criticism mounted pressure on the government to review its decision on the amended provision. Chouhan continued to stick to his oft-repeated stand on no new liquor shop but his excise department pushed the proposal for new liquor shops at regular intervals or the measures like 100 bottles storage etc.
Chouhan had gone on record saying that he could not sleep whole night after taking the decision in the state cabinet meet. If Chouhan's decision had been implemented it would have meant number of liquor shops increasing by 100 per cent even without increase in the number of shops physically.
When Chouhan ordered withdrawal of the amended provision in the excise policy he did what he known to do for many years - scrap his decision.
In 2009-10, 159 new shops were opened and revenue enhanced was to the tune of Rs 139 crore. Similarly, 149 new shops were opened the next year to get additional revenue of Rs 98 crore.
"When new shops are not to be opened we have to take some new measures like we proposed the storage of 100 bottles for additional revenue. Excise happens to be one of the major sources of revenue of the government. In 2015-16 the state government earned about Rs 7800 crore."
( With inputs from IANS )