Liquor flow during polls destroying youth: CFD

Vijayawada: Citizens for Democracy (CFD) joint secretary Vallamreddy Lakshmana Reddy exhorted the political parties to stop distribution of liquor during the elections to the voters, party cadre and the youth to save them from the drinking menace.

Several women activists and leaders addressed the round-table meeting on the free and fair elections-influence of liquor here on Tuesday.

Lakshmana Reddy said that the free distribution of liquor has been becoming a bane to the youth who are addicted to the vice. “It is sad that the contesting candidates are spending 25 per cent of the amount election expenditure on the distribution of liquor,” he lamented.

He said that the state government never issued an advertisement or a statement on the ill-effects of liquor in the last five years. Right from the chief minister to the MLA nobody ever conducted a review meeting on the liquor menace. It is high time everyone started propaganda against the liquor consumption. The state government is not in a position to take action against the cultivation of Ganja in the Andhra-Odia border.

Lakshmana Reddy appealed to the political parties to include the importance of control of liquor in their manifestoes.

Former zilla parishad president Gadde Anuradha said that cheap liquor worth Rs 60 is being sold at Rs 250. She appealed to the youth to undertake propaganda regarding the harms of liquor consumption in the social media.

AIDWA secretary Ramadevi control of liquor is practical rather than the total prohibition. She demanded the Central government to announce the national liquor policy.

Mahila Samakhya secretary Akkineni Vanaja appealed to women to bring pressure on the political parties to strive for liquor control. She said that dangerous ‘J’ brands of liquor is being sold in the state. A liquor scam larger than the Delhi liquor scam has been going on in the state, she said.

POW state assistant secretary P Padma, Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Parishad secretary Dr Jasti Veeranjaneyulu, social worker Golla Narayana Rao, Akkineni Bhavani Prasad and others spoke.