TRS MLA prods govt on toddy

​Hyderabad: The TRS MLA V Srinivas Goud on Saturday demanded that the state government to promote consumption of toddy (Palm wine) to keep people healthy.

Speaking on the demands for grants for 2017-18 in the state assembly on Saturday, he slammed successive governments for projecting toddy in a bad light.

Goud said drinking Palm wine is good for health. He pointed out that people in the state have been spoiling their health by consuming whisky, brandy and other alcoholic drinks and asked the government to promote Palm wine and its by products like ‘Neera’.

He lauded the state government efforts to revive the livelihoods of the toddy tappers and generously providing compensation to those accidentally falling from atop the trees while extracting toddy.

He wondered why no one in earlier governments ever bothered to think and make efforts to reduce the height of the palm trees on par with developing new varieties of low hanging fruit bearing trees.

He stressed upon the need for coming up with hybrid varieties of low height palm trees. Goud demanded that 40 per cent of bar and restaurant licences be allocated to the toddy tappers.