Tamil Nadu Assembly today witnessed an interesting debate on implementation of total prohibition in the state as the Jayalalithaa government defended its policy of allowing sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor, saying it was implementing it with 'bitterness'.
Manithaneya Makkal Katchi member M H Jawahirullah wanted the government to implement total prohibition as thousands of families were affected by liquor.
Defending the government policy, under which IMFL is sold in state-run retail outlets, Prohibition and Excise Minister Natham R Viswanathan said the government was not against total prohibition. "But, we are not implementing it only to avoid illicit liquor and hooch deaths."
He said with no prohibition in force in the neighbouring states, Tamil Nadu cannot go for it, as it would result in flow of liquor into the state from Kerala, Puducherry and Karnataka.
When Jawahirullah insisted on prohibition, Viswanathan said "Let the Centre first announce prohibition across the country... We won't have neighbouring states selling liquor."
Jawahirullah found a supporter in CPI (M) member Soundararajan, who asked the government at least to do away with 'bar' facilities in the state-run liquor shops.
A defensive Minister said, "If I provide bar, they will drink there only. If I don't, they will open the bottle just outside the shop. Then, all streets will become bars."
"Do you really want that?" Viswanathan asked, sending the members, including Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, into peels of laughter.
On a final note, the Minister said "We are implementing the present policy only with bitterness.
