Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti on Monday welcomed Madhya Pradesh’s new excise policy, saying it reflects her demand to discourage liquor consumption and described it as a “historic and revolutionary” decision.
The Madhya Pradesh cabinet on Sunday approved the new excise policy under which ‘ahatas’, or areas for drinking attached to liquor outlets, and shop bars will be closed.
State Home Minister Narottam Mishra said the new excise policy is designed to discourage liquor consumption.
Bharti had demanded a “controlled liquor policy” in MP.
The former MP chief minister, who had started her campaign with the demand for total prohibition, gradually relaxed it and asked for regularisation of liquor sale in the state, where the Assembly polls are due this year-end.
In a series of tweets on Monday, Bharti said the liquor policy announced by the state government is a “historic and revolutionary” decision and thanked Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on behalf of all the citizens, especially women.
The new liquor policy totally prohibits drinking sitting in front of the liquor shop. The decision to close ahatas across the state and introducing stringent penal provisions for driving under the influence of alcohol are special parts of this policy which make Madhya Pradesh a “model state” for the excise policy, she said.
Bharti said CM Chouhan has made it clear that the public interest is supreme for the BJP government in the state.
Madhya Pradesh has already progressed a lot in organic farming based on cow progeny. “We will cooperate with the government by strengthening the campaign ‘sharab chhodo dudh piyo’ (give up alcohol and drink milk),” the BJP leader added.
Bharti has been campaigning against liquor consumption and has asked the Chouhan-led BJP government in MP not to cash in on the drinking habit of people through a liberal excise regime.
She had tied two cows in front of a liquor shop in Orchha town of Niwari district, which is famous for temples and palaces, and exhorted people to drink milk and not alcohol under her ‘madhushala mein gaushala’ (cowshed in liquor vend) programme.
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