While releasing the White Paper on the irregularities in the Excise Department during the previous government on the floor of the Assembly, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that the State government will soon order for a Crime Investigation Department (CID) probe into the large scale irregularities.
Chandrababu announced here on Wednesday that the support of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), too, will be sought as liquor was sold accepting the payments only in cash but not without any online payments. The Chief Minister said that the State had suffered a loss of Rs 18,860.51 crore with the change in liquor policy after the YSRCP came to power in 2019.
Chandrababu said that the details will be sought from the Health Department on how many people suffered from serious health problems due to consumption of spurious liquor. Expressing serious concern that the economic condition of the State is very alarming, the Chief Minister stated that a detailed study is yet to be conducted on this.
“Because of the poor financial condition of the State, we are now not in a position to present a full scale budget before the Assembly,” he added. Pointing out the allocation of funds by the Centre for the State in a special manner, Chandrababu felt that the facility provided by the Centre is only temporary. “We have to increase the State’s revenue. This white paper is being released only to explain to the people what exactly had happened to the State in the past five years, the loss that the State had suffered and what kind of serious damage caused the State,” Chandrababu explained.
“The past five-year rule is a case study on how the governance should not be and the former chief minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, too, is a case study on how the head of the State should not be,” he observed. “While some make mistakes to meet the urgent needs while some commit mistakes out of greed. Yet others commit blunders with insanity. In the past five years blunders were committed sherely out of frenzy only to mint money.”
Chandrababu wished that not only the members of the Assembly, but also the people should understand this White Paper being released on the excise policy. This White Paper is a classic example on how a person despite committing several blunders can still talk in whichever way he wants, he stated.
Chandrababu is of the opinion that Jagan got 40 per cent vote in the recent elections not because people liked him, but because no awareness was created among the people. If criminals are in politics, politics will turn into a crime and one can easily imagine if a criminal is leading politics, he remarked.
Maintaining that one can easily understand how the previous rulers betrayed the State by going through all the seven White Papers, the Chief Minister said that besides the allocation of funds to the State by the Centre, attempts will be made to bring awareness among the people on how the State was looted in the past five years. Pointing out that the party came to power by making a promise to impose prohibition on the State and also bring down the sale of liquor besides confining the liquor supply to only five-star hotels, Chandrababu said that after assuming power 4,380 shops that were existing at that time were brought down to only to 2,934 as just an eye-wash. Immediately and within one year the number was increased to 3,392. While continuing the number of bars which existed in 2019, he said, adding that the fact is that the excise police was totally amended in the name of prohibition.
The percentage of consumers of liquor increased to 6.23 which was 5.55 between 2019 and 2020, he said. The consumption has increased drastically. The Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) system was brought in through GO number 41 only to check illegal transport of liquor, drugs and ganja but the percentage of ganja smuggling went up by 27, while the non-duty paid liquor percentage increased to 66 and the number of arrests too went up to a whopping 161 per cent, he said.
The popular brands of beers, too, have been brought down completely while the sale of local brands, which were never found anywhere in the country, have been increased from zero to 12 lakh. As per the statistics of the National Crime Records Bureau those who fell victim to liquor consumption has gone up by 100 per cent compared to 2018, the Chief Minister said and added that the mental and sexual harassment cases had increased by 76.40 per cent. Over 52 per cent of persons suffered from lung failure and the percentage of persons of kidney failure, too, has gone up by 54 per cent, he explained.
