In Delhi, liquor shortage likely from Monday as new excise policy rolled back

Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday said that the Aam Aadmi Party’s old liquor sale policy will be back in force from August 1.

Days after the Lieutenant Governor recommended a CBI probe into the implementation of the new excise policy, the Delhi government took a U-turn and decided to go back to the old regime of retail liquor sales in the city.

At the same time, Sisodia defended the government’s new liquor policy and said that the policy was meant to curb corruption.

Sisodia, who also holds the excise portfolio, directed the department on Thursday to “revert” to the old regime of the excise policy for a period of six months till a fresh policy was put in place.

‘DON’T WANT HOOCH TRAGEDY IN DELHI’
Addressing a press conference, Sisodia said that if the legal sale of liquor is closed in Delhi, then the national capital might witness “hooch tragedy”.

“We don’t want hooch tragedy in Delhi. That is why instead of new liquor policy, the liquor will be sold through old liquor policy,” Sisodia said.

More than 42 people died after consumption of spurious liquor in the dry state of Gujarat. The hooch tragedy came to light this week when some people living in Rojid village of Botad and other surrounding villages were referred to government hospitals in the Barvala area and Botad town with deteriorating health conditions.

Primary investigations by police revealed that some small-time bootleggers of different villages in Botad district had made the spurious liquor by mixing water with methyl alcohol or Methanol, a highly poisonous industrial solvent, and sold it to villagers for Rs 20 per pouch.

GUJARAT EXPOSED?
Hitting out at the BJP, Sisodia compared Delhi and Gujarat’s excise policy and said that the latest hooch tragedy had exposed Gujarat. “Liquor is banned in Gujarat. In the name of liquor ban, thousands of crores are being rotated, illicit liquor is made and sold.This is not the first case of deaths due to illicit liquor in Gujarat. After investigation, it comes out that it is their (BJP) people who are involved in the illicit liquor racket in Gujarat,” Sisodia claimed.