Excise minister M B Rajesh on Tuesday seemed keen to dispel the notion that Kerala is the tipsiest state in India. It was former Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala who set in motion in the Assembly a debate on Kerala's supposed excessive drinking habits.
"Keralites constitute 3 percent of the country's population but account for 14 percent of the liquor consumed in the whole of India," Chennithala said while taking part in the discussion on the Abkari (Amendment) Bill, 2023, on Tuesday. He was criticising the LDF government's Abkari Policy, which according to him would end up drowning Kerala in alcohol.
The excise minister, however, sought to differ. He came up with a different set of figures. He said Kerala's liquor consumption fell below the national average. If the national average was 14.6 percent, Kerala's was 12.4 percent.
Rajesh said Arunachal Pradesh had the highest liquor consumption rate, nearly 40 percent. Close behind were Chattisgarh, Tripura, and Punjab.
Narcotic consumption was also low in the state, Rajesh said. He said the national average for the consumption of narcotic substances was 1.2 percent. Kerala's was 0.1 percent. "When it comes to drug use, Kerala is placed among the last three states," the minister said.
Chennithala intervened to repeat the charge that Kerala's 3 percent was consuming 14 percent of liquor consumed in Kerala. "I don't know from where the minister got his figures," Chennithala said
Rajesh said he had sourced his figures from Government of India study titled 'Magnitue of Substance Use in India'. "Now it would be nice if Chennithala could reveal his source," the minister said.
The former Opposition Leader shied away from revealing his source. The minister's is a 2019 report in which Kerala is ranked 21 in alcohol use prevalence.
Further, the excise minister went on to debunk the UDF claim that the LDF government was flooding Kerala with liquor. The UDF MLAs alleged that the LDF was doing all it can to increase the availability of liquor in the name of abstinence.
Rajesh said liquor intake has fallen by 8.1 percent in the last decade, seven years of which were ruled by the LDF. To elaborate, he gave a comparison of liquor sales during the UDF and LDF tenures. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16 fiscals, Kerala had sold 1148 lakh cases of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). During the five years of the first Pinarayi Ministry, only 1036 lakh IMFL cases were sold. "We sold 112 lakh less IMFL cases," the minister said.
Nonetheless, he was silent about the fall in sales necessitated by the pandemic-induced lockdown for nearly the whole of 2020 and a part of 2021.
