E-Paper
Question Hour: No provision for free alcohol, liquor not essential to living: Govt in Legislative Council
The question was asked by Bahujan Samaj Party MLC Bheemrao Ambedkar, who wanted to know if the government had a plan to distribute free liquor to the BPL families and if not then why.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday informed the Legislative Council that it has no plan to supply free liquor to people in the below the poverty line (BPL) category, saying its consumption is not essential to living.
“Providing free liquor is not covered under public welfare and there is no such provision in the liquor policy of 2022-23 either. Hence, there is no plan to make free liquor available for the BPL people,” excise minister (independent charge) Nitin Agrawal said in a reply to an unstarred question during the question hour in the Vidhan Parishad.
The question was asked by Bahujan Samaj Party MLC Bheemrao Ambedkar, who wanted to know if the government had a plan to distribute free liquor to the BPL families and if not then why.
“Since it was an unstarred question, I could not ask supplementary questions and had to be satisfied with the government response,” Ambedkar told HT over phone. “If the government can provide free ration to more than three crore families, then why not free liquor because its sale or consumption is not banned in the state,” he argued. He, however, hastened to add that he was not promoting liquor but was only highlighting the poor’s predicament.
He alleged that a majority of liquor shops had been opened in poor Dalit localities because of which liquor addiction among the poor was on the rise. “Many poor people sell free ration given to them by the government to buy liquor,” he claimed.
“The government should either prohibit liquor sale and consumption or supply it to them for free to stop their financial position from getting worse,” Ambedkar told HT. In the last session, he had asked the government to provide figures regarding the liquor shops opened in Dalit localities.
