Madhya Pradesh govt gets women employees to sell liquor

Desperate to shore up its extremely precarious financial condition, Madhya Pradesh government is forced to sell liquor through its excise and police department personnel including women as liquor contractors have surrendered their licences, citing huge loss in the business.

The state government earns nearly Rs 10,000 crore revenue per year from liquor shop auctions. However, owing to the corona-induced lockdown and economic meltdown, there has been precipitous fall in the revenue. The revenue generation is unlikely to improve anytime soon, given the liquor contactors’ defiance of the government’s conditions.

The Congress has raised strong objection to the government deploying women personnel at liquor shops, saying chief minister Shivraj Singh has no qualm in insulting dignity of the woman in his pursuit for earning revenue.

Protesting sale of liquor by women, Congress workers led by MLA Arif Masood distributed milk packets to the customers at liquor shops in Lalghati locality of Bhopal on Friday.

Former chief minister and MPCC president Kamal Nath tore into the chief minister for the government’s move, recalling that when Shivraj Singh was in the opposition he would wax eloquence on threat to mothers and sisters from liquor and would join dharna with them.

“Now you have placed mothers and sisters on liquor shops. Can there be a more shameful double standard”?

Since June 8, the excise department has taken over nearly 70% of the liquor shops in the state following surrender of licenses by the contractors. The Madhya Pradesh government was coercing the contractors to sell liquor in the existing licensing terms as it agreed to reopen vends after 79 days of lockdown in the state. However, nearly two-third contractors refused the government term, citing huge loss to their business during the lockdown. They demanded 25 percent cut in the excise revenue levied by the government on license. The government rejected the demand. The contractors moved the MP high court which directed them to either surrender their license to enable the government to invite fresh bids or accept the existing licensing conditions.

The contractors surrendered licenses forcing the government to take over liquor shops and deploy excise and police department employees including women for selling liquor from the surrendered shops.