Liquor from Food Grains in Times of Instability

On Saturday, the 12th of December 2009, approximately 400 members from 20 different organisations along with Lok Raj Sangathan came together to oppose " Liquor from  food grains "

Not many days back Sharad Pawar himself said: "Due to bad monsoon this year we are short of food grains and the prices of the same are expected to rise". In such a situation the government sanctions making of "liquor from grains". Each litre of liquor needs 2.8 kg of grains. Now, why the government would sanction such production under the given circumstances, is beyond understanding. Not only that, Maharashtra Government is enforcing a subsidy of 10 rupees on each litre of liquor.

Maharashtra Government Report explains that this is done so that the farmers from the Vidarbha region can get good prices for their grains. On the contrary there are only 4 distilleries sanctioned for Vidarbha out of the existing 26. This clearly indicates that the purpose is not to help Vidarbha farmers but to fill the pockets of the liquor lobby. One of the participants in the gathering demanded that: if the government wants to help farmers then the money they are giving as subsidies to these liquor companies should be directly given to the farmers.

Dr. Narendra Dhabholkar thrashed the policies of the ruling government of Maharashtra. He demanded that the ruling party withdraws from the position of power immediately if they are not going to put an end to such anti-people policies.