Allegations linking YSRCP’s liquor policy with diseases false, says party leader

Amaravati: YSRCP leader and former health minister V Rajini on Monday said certain allegations against the party's liquor policy while it was in the ruling saddle in Andhra Pradesh were false and politically motivated.

Rajini said that linking liver and kidney diseases to the YSRCP’s liquor policy was baseless, intended to malign YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's erstwhile government and deflect attention from failures.

According to a report by an expert panel, Andhra Pradesh has registered a staggering 100 per cent increase in the cases of alcohol-related liver diseases during the tenure of Reddy-led YSRCP in 2019-2024 as compared to the earlier five years.

The 3-member panel, which the Chandrababu Naidu government constituted to analyse the disease burden in Andhra, used the official health data from Arogyasri, a flagship scheme to provide quality healthcare services to the poor.

"The coalition (the ruling NDA govt) is twisting facts and misusing health data to spread deliberate lies. Our (erstwhile YSRCP) government worked to curb alcohol use, ensured safer regulation, and invested in public health, unlike their (TDP-led) regime, which fuelled unchecked liquor sales," said Rajini in a release.

The former health minister said that liquor sales allegedly dropped from four crore to three crore liquor cases (carton box) from 2018 to 19 and 2023-24, while beer sales fell from 3 crore to 1 crore.

The YSRCP leader alleged that the NDA coalition government peddles falsehoods, ignoring its record, while Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu 'introduced' 200 liquor brands, flooding the market with unknown ones.

In contrast, Reddy retained brands already existing during his regime, said Rajini.

A Chennai-based lab and others approved quality and Competition Commission of India (CCI) confirmed compliance and no deaths happened due to illicit liquor during the previous YSRCP regime, he said.

Rajini claimed that the YSRCP curbed alcohol usage by regulating shops, reducing timings, and abolishing 43,000 alleged belt shops (illegal liquor outlets).

He alleged that the TDP-led government misinterprets health data, falsely linking diseases to liquor, while ignoring that lifestyle factors play a more significant role.

Under Reddy's regime, the diseases covered under Aarogyasri (free healthcare scheme) raised from 1,059 to 3,254; 108 and 104 ambulances increased from 622 to 2,204, enhancing emergency access.

The erstwhile YSRCP government addressed severe staff shortages in government hospitals by recruiting over 53,000 healthcare workers, which improved services across the state, he said.

Despite a 61 per cent national shortage of specialist doctors, the state reduced it to 4 per cent. Nurse and lab technician shortages, at 27 per cent and 33 per cent nationally, dropped to zero in Andhra Pradesh, he added.