The Telugu Desam Party on Tuesday demanded a CBI inquiry into the replacement of Maximum Retail Price (MRP) printed on liquor bottles with 'Recommended Price', and alleged that this has been done to enable wine-sellers to sell liquor at any price they chose to.
Talking to media persons, TDP leader Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu charged the government with promoting liquor culture in the state and wanted to make it a 'Madyandhra Pradesh'. The TDP leader said if the situation continues, children in the state will not get milk, but liquor, to drink.
Condemning the government move to remove the MRP from the wine bottles, the TDP leaders said the fact that the MRP had been replaced by the recommended price that meant that the wine shop owners could charge any price they wanted to from their customers. He said there would be irregularities in wine shop tenders, and demanded a CBI enquiry to be set up to investigate the matter.
He sarcastically advised the government to print the images of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Rosaiah in place of the MRP.
Muddukrishnama Naidu alleged that the chief minister K Rosaiah was directly involved in this scam and had taken money and filled the coffers of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Taking a dig at Congress general secretary, Rahul Gandhi, he said the Congress general secretary always sees corruption in Uttar Pradesh but turns a blind eye to the rampant corruption in Andhra Pradesh.
He said that
the income generated by wine shop tenders itself spoke volumes of the booze culture promoted by the state government.
Quoting statistics, Naidu said that in 2008, the government had earned Rs. 1,648 crore from the liquor shop tenders, but this figure has zoomed to over Rs. 6,500 crore in 2010-11.
He said that the Congress had promised that it would phase out belt shops (illegal wine shops) in the state but instead it had been encouraging illegal trade in liquor in the state.
"The government has been going gaga over the welfare schemes, but in reality, it is the people who are getting less and giving more to the government by purchasing liquor," said another TDP leader Somireddy Chandra Mohan Reddy.
Terming former minister JC Diwakar Reddy a 'mouthpiece' of the Chief Minister K Rosaiah for defending the increase in liquor consumption in the state by saying that people want to drink liquor, Chandra Mohan Reddy said this meant that the government should also call for a tender of prostitutes.
Courtesy: INN