Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has indicated that the option of restoring the sale of legal alcohol was still on the table.
He said here on Friday that the total ban on liquor retail during the lockdown had impacted society adversely. A youth, apparently addicted to alcohol, had committed suicide.
Kerala has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the country. The government feared that people could turn to toxic brews and lethally addictive substances to tide over the temporary squeeze on liquor sales.
Hence, Mr. Vijayan said he had laid the subject on the table of the Excise Department. He expected the department to come up with viable proposals at the earliest.
The government had banned liquor to impose social distancing norms at bars and liquor outlets last Monday. He had said on Thursday that bootleggers, black marketeers, drug peddlers and illicit brewers had stepped into void.
The Excise Department has broadened its “Vimukthi” de-addiction programme. Persons helplessly addicted to alcohol could access Vimukthi centres for treatment and counselling.
Mr. Vijayan obliquely criticised the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation for having opened a shelter for the homeless at Putharikandam maidan. He said he could not accept such measures and asked LSGIs to commandeer schools to house homeless persons and migrant workers.
He said the Leader of the Opposition of Bihar had called him to discuss the state of nearly one-lakh of migrant workers from that State and neighbouring Jharkhand.
Mr. Vijayan said he told him that Kerala had opened 4,603 camps for migrant workers. The camps house an estimated 1.15 lakh labourers. The government opened community kitchens to serve them food and clean drinking water. The camps, mostly in schools, have adequate sanitation facilities and space. Kerala has also given its “guest” workers masks, soaps and hand sanitisers.
He asked the police to be polite but firm. They should not stop people from going out for essential errands, including procuring food and medicines. Mr. Vijayan asked LSGIs to provide for street dogs, which could attack citizens if they went without nourishment for long. He requested temple managements to feed monkeys in certain localities to prevent man-human conflict.
