Urging the Government to stop auctioning belt shops in the State, Lok Satta party workers staged a dharna in front of the Secretariat here on Saturday.
Lok Satta found fault with the Government for encouraging the people to consume more alcohol and thereby help raise the revenues to the State. This is not a right policy of the Government to adopt, the Lok Satta leaders felt.
Andhra Pradesh, once a model state with total prohibition, has witnessed a tremendous increase in the consumption of liquor. In spite of a growing movement against small liquor shops in the rural areas, thousands have filed tender applications for the retail liquor shops in the state, aiming to cash in on the lucrative business.
Twelve years after total prohibition was lifted by the Chandrababu Naidu government, Andhra Pradesh today is one of the largest consumers of liquor in the country, taking the excise revenue of the state to over Rs 10,000 crore per annum.
Due to the huge turnout of applicants in the last couple of days, the state Excise authorities have been asked to keep their counters open till the midnight of Saturday the last day.