Ongole: Liquor consumption dips by 28% in State
Andhra Pradesh MadyavimochanaPrachara Committee Chairman VallamreddyLakshmanareddy speaking at a press meet in Ongole
Ongole: Andhra Pradesh Madyavimochana Prachara Committee chairman Vallamreddy Lakshmanareddy on Friday said that the efforts of the State government to reduce the consumption of liquor and beer are fruitful to some extent and as the result, their sales came down by 28 and 64 per cent respectively last year.
Speaking at the press meet held in the office of the Special Enforcement Bureau in Ongole, Lakhsmanareddy said that the SEB has become a nightmare to the illegal manufacturers of country liquor, illegal transporters of liquor etc. Last year, the SEB registered 48,336 cases and arrested 38,016 people and destroyed 6,10,820 litres of arrack, 1,73,14,139 litres of molasses, and seized 5,377 vehicles. He said that the SEB also booked 17,044 cases for the illegal sale of liquor, arrested 18,710 people, and seized 74,980 litres of liquor and 2,817 vehicles involved in the incidents.
He also informed that they also registered 29730 cases for the illegal sale of liquor from other States, arrested 43857 people involved in them and seized 5,87,877 litres of liquor, 11,940 litres of beer and 1,656 vehicles. The SEB also arrested 3,187 people for the sale of ganja and registered 1,188 cases on them after seizing 1,61,300 kilos of ganja and 830 vehicles.
Lakshmanareddy said that as the government took up many programmes to discourage the people to consume alcohol for the last 20 months. He said that they sold 512 lakh cases of liquor and 348 lakh cases of beer from October 2018 to May 2020, but the sales reduced to 367 lakh cases of liquor and 124 lakh cases of beer from October 2020 to May 2021 in the State.
He said that they would reduce the consumption of alcohol through many awareness programmes, with the cooperation from the self-help groups, volunteers and secretariat staff. He advised the volunteers to identify the alcoholics and refer them to the de-addiction centres established by the government for free treatment.
SEB Assistant Commissioner Y Srinivas Chowdary, Excise Assistant Commissioner D Sriramachandra Murthy, SEB Superintendent B Aruna Kumari, Excise Superintendent R Hanumantha Rao and others also participated in the programme.