Thiruvananthapuram: The government should make a policy decision to allow home delivery of alcoholic beverages in the state, and therefore such an initiative is not possible now, Kerala's Minister for Excise M V Govindan had said last Sunday. 

On Wednesday, the Minister ruled out home delivery of liquor and beer following a huge demand for it, on account of the state-wide lockdown. He said, with the daily Covid tally rising substantially, the state government decided to close down all liquor vends, both government-run and private, on April 26.

"Our policy is not total prohibition but to promote abstinence from liquor. We do not plan to have any programme of delivering liquor at doorsteps and hence, it will not take place," said Govindan. His response came to a caller who said that if home delivery is done, it will provide jobs to at least 100 youths in the vicinity of every liquor vend.

A study on the profile of liquor users in the state reveals that around 32.9 lakh people, 29.8 lakh men and 3.1 lakh women, out of the 3.34 crore population in the state consume liquor. Around five lakh people consume liquor on a daily basis, and among them, 83,851 people, including 1,043 women, are addicted to alcohol, according to state government statistics. Kerala’s revenue on liquor and beer is among the biggest cash cows and in the last fiscal, amounted to over Rs 15,000 crore.

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