Telangana turning into ‘land of drunkards’, alleges T Harish Rao

BRS MLA T Harish Rao has accused Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and the Congress government of burdening citizens with taxes and promoting liquor sales at the cost of public welfare. He criticised the push for microbreweries, rollback of Neera initiatives, and neglect of the Goud community.

Hyderabad: Former Minister and senior BRS MLA T Harish Rao charged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy with burdening people with taxes, while filling the State coffers through liquor sales. He demanded the State government to immediately withdraw its plans to establish micro breweries across the State, and instead, encourage Neera which was both healthy for people and beneficial to the Goud community.

In a statement, Harish Rao said that in 22 months of Congress rule, people had only seen the Congress truncating BRS welfare schemes, while promoting tax hikes and effecting steep liquor prices.

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“Six guarantees or 420 guarantees, nothing has reached the people. Instead, the government has doubled liquor income by raising shop application fees from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh,” he said.

He charged the government with trampling on its manifesto promise of abolishing belt shops. He said the officials were being harassed with memos to meet liquor sales targets, resulting in suffering of people especially women in rural areas.

“The government is even pushing microbreweries in every town, to turn Telangana into a land of drunkards,” he remarked.

The BRS leader accused Revanth Reddy of double standards where he promised about liquor prohibition before polls, but encouraged micro breweries and inferior liquor brands after coming to power. “Hundreds of new liquor brands are being allowed recklessly, endangering people’s health,” he said.

Harish Rao also faulted the Congress for neglecting the Goud community. He pointed out that the 15 per cent quota in liquor shops given by former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to the Goud community, had been denied, while Neera shops were being closed.

He said the government was not even releasing an accidental insurance premium to the Goud community members which was implemented by the BRS government.

“Revanth Reddy is a U-turn CM. He promised one tola gold, Rs 2,500 allowance to women, and farmer relief, but has delivered only belt shops and micro breweries,” he said, demanding the government roll back its liquor-centric policies.