Babu wants government to run liquor shops

HYDERABAD: Calling for a change in the government’s excise policy, leader of the opposition N Chandrababu Naidu has suggested that the government run liquor shops itself to curb syndicates which are looting the poor and sucking the blood of the consumers.Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, the Telugu Desam president The government should not consider excise as a golden goose but try to restrict the sale of liquor and the timings of sale.Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy transferred Srinivasa Reddy, chief of the Special Investigation Team of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, only to protect his own position and those of the ministers involved in the liquor scam, he alleged.Naidu said the Congress high command, including AICC president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, may protect their leaders including PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana and excise minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana Rao by diluting the ACB probe, but the TDP would not spare them but expose the culprits in peoples’ court.Alleging that liquor, mining and land mafia were ruling the state, he said his party planned to organise a huge public meeting against Botcha Satyanarayana in his native Vizianagaram district and also launch a mass signature campaign against the tainted ministers and the excise policy of the  government.Naidu said the party’s women’s wing would launch a signature campaign with the demand that all those having links with liquor syndicates, including ministers, MLAs, excise and police officials, should be punished.  Calling for  changes in the excise policy, he said, "The Congress high command has diluted the case as Botcha is involved in the liquor scam. The chief minister transferred the ACB official only to save his skin. He will not be in chief minister’s chair permanently. He should know this. Public good should be his priority.”Meanwhile, Naidu said he would launch the bypoll campaigning from Tirupati on April 9 with focus on corruption.