Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 8: Over three decades after it came out with a directive banning its members from consuming alcohol, the Communist Party of India has now relaxed the curbs, holding that there is no harm in members consuming liquor in moderate quantities.
It was in 1992 that the CPI, the second biggest constituent in the Left Democratic Front, decided that party members should not consume liquor. Lifting the ban now, in a directive to the party rank and file, the party said that members can consume liquor, but should do it in moderate quantities.
It further adds that drinking should not be made a habit and under no circumstances, should members drink in public and they should ensure that the image of the party is not affected. Incidentally, while the Congress-led United Democratic Front in 2015 batted for prohibition and led to the closure of more than 500 bars and for a brief while only five-star hotels were allowed to sell liquor, the CPI-M-led Left was not for prohibition.
With the budget session of the Kerala Assembly scheduled to begin later this month, this move by the CPI is certainly going to be raked up by the Congress-led Opposition. Over the years, the Kerala state exchequer is kept alive by the taxes collected through the sale of beer and liquor as in the last fiscal, this generated a staggering Rs 16,609.63 crore, up from Rs 16,189.55 crore in 2022-23.
Liquor in Kerala is sold through 277 retail outlets owned by the Kerala State Beverages Corporation, while the state-backed cooperative organization Consumerfed also has 39 retail outlets. The profile of liquor consumers in Kerala reveals that around 32.9 lakh people out of the 3.34 crore population in the state consume liquor, which includes 29.8 lakh men and 3.1 lakh women. Around five lakh people consume liquor on a daily basis. Of this, as many as 83,851 people, including 1,043 women, are addicted to alcohol.
IANS