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Liquor trade workers attack prohibitionists, scribes in Kerala

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Liquor trade workers in Kerala are on a warpath.

On Friday, they attacked the prohibitionists holding a dharna (sit-in demonstration) before the state Secretariat here. Police and press photographers, who covered the rally, said that the workers, who were taking out a rally under the banner of the Liquor Trade Workers Protection Committee, went on a rampage when they reached the shed, where the prohibitionists were holding the sit-in demanding total prohibition from April 1.

About 5,000 liquor trade workers were in a rally demanding rehabilitation fo nearly 30,000 workers who were rendered jobless by the ban on arrack (country liquor) by the Congress-led United Democratic Front from April 1, 1996.

The members of Anti-liquor People's Front escaped when the rallyists destroyed the shed and set afire their banners. Two photographers -- B S Prasannan (of Mangalam) and Judin (of Arab News), who tried to shoot pictures were beaten up. The former received a severe blow on his chest. People in the sit-in escaped.

The police said that they have registered two cases in connection with the incident. However, no arrests have been made so far. The dharna was on since February 8, when the Anti-liquor People's Front consisting of various organisations, including the Church and women's organisation, launched a major campaign against the Communist-led government's policy to allow new blending and bottling units in the state.

The liquor trade workers who lost jobs following the ban on country liquor, have been restless over the campaign by the prohibitionists against the move to issue licences for 24 new blending and bottling units in the state as a measure to provide jobs to them and meet the gap between demand and supply.

The government has been maintaining that the total demand for Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) in Kerala had mounted to 5.2 million cases while the supply remained static at 3.2 million cases. The rest came from neighboring states either through legal and illegal channels.

However, the prohibitionists have disputed the figures. They claimed that 17 distilleries functioning in the state now were capable of meeting about 85 per cent of the demand. The remaining 15 per cent could easily be supplied by the local distilleries if they are allowed to expand their production capacity.

In fact, applications of several existing units for capacity expansion were pending when the minister sought to grant new licences to 25 units. For reasons not known, the government did not entertain the applications from local distilleries for capacity expansion. The prohibitionists saw the move by the government as part of its plan to reintroduce the arrack. A recent study by the social welfare department of the government of India had found that only about ten per cent of the arrack consumers were benefitted by the ban. The remaining, the study said, had turned to either costly IMFL or illicit liquor, that witnessed a boost following the arrack ban.

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Kerala