Wine merchants call for bandh in Karnataka on Nov. 20

The Federation of Wine Merchants’ Association has called for a State-wide bandh of all wine stores on November 20 over alleged widespread corruption and has put forth several demands to be met.

The federation’s letter to the Chief Minister alleging widespread corruption in the Excise Department has made national headlines after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing the letter, said, “₹700 crore was collected by the Congress in Karnataka and sent to Maharashtra”.

However, at a press conference where they announced the bandh, B. Govindaraj Hegde, the federation’s general secretary, said they were surprised that their statements were being given a political twist.

“None of our federation’s office bearers has ever spoken of bribes amounting to ₹500 crore to ₹900 crore. We are also surprised that erroneous information has reached the Prime Minister. We have never funded any election, and we do not intend to. The mentioning of such issues in the days leading up to the Maharashtra election and other by-elections is deeply disheartening, as our organization is politically neutral,” he said.

Mr Hegde said while corruption had been part and parcel of the trade for many years now, it had attained intolerable levels in the last year or so. “We held a protest in February when the Excise Minister came and took our memorandum. But we have found no relief, forcing us to go for a bandh,” he said.

One of the main demands by the federation is that Mr. Siddaramaiah should take over the Excise Department as well, as the department does not have any grants.

KSTHOA opposes bandh

Meanwhile, the Karnataka State Tourism Hotel Owners’ Association (KSTHOA), which runs hotels with lodging, boarding and liquor services under CL – 7 liquor licences, announced that they would not be supporting the State-wide bandh of wine stores.

The KSTHOA, which runs its services with permission from the Tourism Department, said they had not faced any harassment from either the excise officials or from the police officers. They also said the wine merchants had not consulted with them before announcing the liquor sale shutdown.

“They (Federation) are deciding everything unilaterally without consulting us. Our main aim is to serve tourists, and we do not want to trouble them in any manner by engaging in such shutdowns. Moreover, we will lose at least about ₹2 lakh if we shut down service for a day, and we already incur losses because of the dry days announced by the government,” said Umesh. S. Bali, president, KSTHOA.

Published - November 14, 2024 10:17 pm IST