After working hard for long hours over 5 days a week the IT professionals need someplace to unwind themselves and the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan certainly knows what the IT crowd wants!
In a television show ‘Naam Munoottu’, the CM said that he would consider opening pubs, especially for the IT professionals in the God’s own country.
“What are those things called pump? Pubs? The lack of such pubs has become a major criticism that has been raised against us. The Kerala government is seriously looking into this,” he said.
He said that the government is considering revamping Bevco, the government-owned liquor sale corporation. The chief minister also said that the state government will consider setting up supermarket like liquor outlets where customers can pick up alcohol of their choice, thus avoiding long queues.
The previous UDF government had stringent rules on the selling of alcohol. Around 700 hotels had lost their license. Only 5-star hotels were permitted to serve liquor. However, in 2017, the ruling LDF government reversed the policy, allowing 4-star hotels to serve Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and 2-star hotels to serve wine and beer. They also allowed restaurants and bars to serve the state’s traditional toddy, giving the industry a boost.
The anti-liquor policy was also hampering the tourism-dependent state. The LDF had previously made it clear that they weren’t in favour of banning alcohol. However, it was implemented probably because the state had India's highest per capita alcohol consumption, at more than eight litres per person per year.
