Maha: Now, wine permitted to be sold in supermarkets
Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Jan, 2022 02:21 PM
Mumbai, Jan 27 (IANS) In a significant decision, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra on Thursday permitted all supermarkets to sell wine manufactured in the state as part of the new wine policy, officials said.
The decision was taken by the state Cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray - and it immediately attracted flak from the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Interestingly, the move comes a week after neighbouring Madhya Pradesh permitted liquor sales at all its airports, select supermarkets in four major cities and also allowed issuing home bar licences to those earning Rs 1 crore or more annually.
Briefing the media, Nationalist Congress Party Minister Nawab Malik said that supermarkets with a minimum area of 1,000 sq ft or more shall be allowed to sell wine - as opposed to beers and other liquors - under the new policy enacted last year after the earlier 20-year-old policy lapsed.
The state has around four-dozen wineries, most centred in Nashik district which accounts for 80 per cent of the wine produced in India, besides small wineries in other districts like Ahmednagar, Sangli, Pune, Solapur and Buldhana.
The country's fledgling wine industry is worth around Rs 1,000 crore with Maharashtra, a pioneering state in this sector, contributing nearly two-third to the revenue.
BJP Leader of Opposition, Devendra Fadnavis, and others slammed the government move, terming it as the MVA's special love for the liquor industry, just like its decisions to lift the prohibition in Chandrapur, cut in excise duty on imported liquor from 300 per cent to 150 per cent etc.
"We shall not allow Maharashtra to become a ‘madya-rashtra'," said Fadnavis, even as other leaders and women's groups criticised the decision.
The MVA government defended the move by saying that it will benefit the fruit farmers who supply their produce to wineries for making wines, besides generating some revenue for the state exchequer.
Most wines have very low alcohol content as compared to hard liquor and many restaurants and bakeries also use wine in certain food-making processes, notably the popular wine or rum cakes.
The charge made by the BJP functionary comes a day after Kejriwal during his visit to poll-bound Goa on Tuesday, announced 80 per cent reservation in private sector jobs, Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 doles for the unemployed youth and families who have lost employment due to Covid respectively as well as setting up of a Skill university in the state.
Even as he reiterated his intention to counter any move to make Sidhu the state's Chief Minister face, Amarinder Singh said he will pit a strong candidate against him in the 2022 Assembly polls to ensure his defeat.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Goa have been engaged in a war of words and pre-poll announcements over the last few months ahead of the state Assembly polls, which are due in the coastal state in early 2022.
The stolen bicycles recovered were of nearly Rs 4 lakh. Deputy Superintendent of Police Charanjit Singh Virk said accused Neemkanta, who lives in suburban Kansal with his wife and son, used to visit parks in the early morning to steal the cycles.
"Pharmaceutical industry in Goa produces 12 per cent of the total medicine manufactured in India. Around 70 per cent of the product is exported to the most developed countries in the world," Sawant told a government function in Panaji organised to promote industrial trade in the state.
Even the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has directed all state governments and Union Territory administrations to use the word Scheduled Caste instead of Dalit for persons belonging to SCs.
