By reducing dry days from 21 to just 3 now, Government giving liquor mafia a yearly bonus of Rs 1K crore
New Delhi: The State BJP President Adesh Gupta on Monday said to further intensify its fight against Arvind Kejriwal’s new excise policy, the party would be conducting a referendum on this issue with its 15-20 workers putting up boxes at 3-4 prominent places in every ward in which a pamphlet would be kept asking people questions and seeking their views on this anti-social policy. The programme will be organised on 4th March across the city at about 1120 places in which the opinion of about 10 lakh Delhiites will be taken on this crucial issue. He said the party is determined to keep up the agitation against Arvind Kejriwal’s bid to turn Delhi into a liquor city with the support of people and their opinion who are the biggest strength of a democracy.
He said Kejriwal has given them extra Rs 1000 crore bonus by reducing the number of dry days from 21 to just 3 now on national and religious holidays and in return favour, has collected from them of a fat sum of money. So now one can get liquor on days like Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti, Mahavir Jayanti and Diwali. In other words, these 18 extra days would give liquor mafia extra revenue of Rs 1000 crore through liquor sale even though the annual liquor sale is already worth Rs 20000 crore.
Gupta said the party has been opposing the new excise policy ever since its inception and even organised silent protest at Jantar Mantar in which MPs, MLAs and councilors besides office bearers took part and then we had 15 lakh signatures collected from Delhites across the city against this policy. Later, we organised a silent fast near Rajghat in which saints and sadhus from different religions prayed to god to give Kejriwal wisdom. But despite our strong protests, Kejriwal was busy in elections in other states purely on the strength and money power of liquor mafia. We even resorted to chakka jam against this issue but to no avail.
