Andhra Pradesh govt to ban alcohol in phases, announces Dy CM Narayanaswamy

Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh K Narayanaswamy on Saturday said that the state government is will implement liquor prohibition in a phased manner. He further said that government revenue in the state is not as important as the welfare of people. This announcement was made on Friday while the Dy CM was addressing the media on Saturday. 

Dy CM K Narayanaswamy on alcohol ban 

Speaking to the media, K Narayanaswamy said alcohol ban is important as several families have been ruined and women from those families are suffering. “In the first phase, liquor shops came down by 20%,” he said. He added that special drives had been conducted across the state for nearly 10 days and huge quantities of illicit liquor had been seized.   

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Over 25L ganja plants destroyed 

Additionally, 25,62,500 ganja plants were destroyed. As per media reports, ganja cultivation is being done on 512 acres in which nearly 3,84,350 kg of ganja valued at 76.87 crores is cultivated every year. 

Apart from this, 521 litres of country liquor and 84,115 litres of jaggery syrup was also destroyed. The government seized 1,482 kg of jaggery wash as well. On January 28, the department officials conducted raids on illicit liquor production centres in Dhoke and Krishnagiri mandals of Kurnool district. About 8 people were arrested in the process as well. 

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Other than the January 28 raid, the authorities also carried out raids on January 30 as well. On this day they seized 60 bottles of liquor smuggled from Karnataka. This happened in Chintalapudi village of Guntur district. 

Other raids that took place in the state were conducted on February 6 when 13 cases were filed and 15 were arrested. K Narayanaswamy also informed that the government has closed 43,000 belt shops. These shops were functioning during the tenure of the former TDP government. 

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