Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Andhra Pradesh unit president Daggubati Purandeswari met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on October 8 (Sunday) and sought an inquiry into the alleged corruption in liquor sales in the State.
In a memorandum submitted to Mr. Shah, she alleged that the sale of ‘cheap liquor’ was not only resulting in the death of thousands of people but also had opened the floodgates to corruption, wherein huge sums were being siphoned off to ‘fill the pockets’ of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his cronies.
The BJP leader pointed out that the liquor shops, which used to be auctioned earlier, were now being run by the State-run Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corporation Limited (APBCL), which procures liquor from the manufacturers only upon the ‘fulfilment of its terms and conditions’.
Besides, liquor manufacturing was ‘taken over’ by some top leaders of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), Ms. Purandeswari alleged.
She said that the process of distillation was also under doubt. As the rectified spirit, a raw material for manufacturing liquor, was not properly distilled, the manufacturing cost of a litre of liquor was limited to ₹15. However, it was being sold for up to ₹800 per litre.
Besides, 80% of the liquor sales were done in cash instead of digital payments, which led to rampant corruption. The sales amount to roughly ₹57,600 crore a year as per conservative estimates but the revenue disclosed by the government was around ₹32,000 crore. The remaining amount was siphoned out of the system, she alleged.
Above all, the liquor contained harmful ingredients that were causing liver cirrhosis and pancreatitis and ultimately death of those consuming it, she added.
