Local Churches welcome Kerala Govt.’s decision to revoke controversial liquor policy

New Delhi, Oct. 28, 2004 – The proposed liberal liquor policy of the Kerala government that was announced recently, prompting criticisms and widespread protests from the local Church, is now slated to be revoked bringing cheers to those campaigning against this controversial policy.

The sudden decision by the government to revoke the proposed policy have been welcomed by the local Church in Kerala, a state famous as a tourist destination.

"It is good that the government has promptly responded to the widespread criticism of the new (liquor) policy," said Isaac Mar Philexinos of the Mar Thoma church.

Philexinos, president of Kerala Council of Churches that groups 11 Orthodox and Protestant churches, said that "all sections of the people except the powerful liquor lobby were shocked by this policy" announced on 13 October.

The justification that the free flow of liquor is essential for attracting tourists to Kerala, advertised as "God's own country" for its scenic beauty, the council said, was tantamount to "paving the way for unbridled consumption of liquor" in the state said to have the highest alcoholism and suicide rates in India.

Following widespread protests, Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy announced during a press conference, convened after a recent state cabinet meeting, that they "have decided to withdraw the new liquor policy".

Under the proposed policy, the Kerala government would have eased curbs on opening new bars including a mandatory 200–metre distance for new liquor vendors from places of worship, and educational institutions.
Besides lifting the ban on opening liquor sales on the first day of the month (salary day), the policy would have provided for sanctioning private illegal bars and opening more bars by the state–controlled Keral Beverage Corporation.

"We were really embarrassed when this policy came from the government that had won the election (in 2001) with a promise to enforce prohibition step by step," Archbishop M. Soosapakiam of Trivandrum Diocese, chairman of Anti–Liquor Commission of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, said upon hearing the government’s decision of revocation. He noted the bishops said the proposed liquor policy "would only spoil individual lives and disintegrate families".

Earlier, when the government had announced the controvewrsial liquor policy, Archbishop M. Soosapakiam had, in a press statement, regretted the Congress Ministry was reneging on the party manifesto of implementing total prohibition by stages in Kerala.

The archbishop, strongly demanding that the government immediately withdraw the soft abkari policy, had then remarked that the per capita consumption of alcohol in Kerala was already the highest in India and further pampering the liquor trade was suicidal.

The Beverages Corporation that controls the sale of alcohol that more than 100 million litres of hard liquor are consumed in Kerala annually.

It is reported that the revenue from the sale and taxation of liquor earns Kerala state more than 10 per cent of its revenue of 3400 crores of rupees.