Yadav slams AAP over 400 liquor vends in city

The Swaraj Abhiyan on Saturday said the Delhi government sought no public consultation before allowing nearly 400 liquor vends to open across the Capital.

Slamming the Arvind Kejriwal government what it described as ‘ liquor hypocrisy’, the Prashant Bhushan and Yogender Yadav- led outfit said the Delhi Excise Rules, 2010 states a process laid down for seeking public consultation. The Aam Aadmi Party government has recently empowered mohalla sabhas to shut down liquor vends in its neighbourhood.

Mr Yadav, who along with Mr Bhushan was expelled from the AAP for alleged anti- party activities, alleged “irregularities” in granting licences to open retail shops in shopping malls ( L10) and departmental stores ( L12). He said Mr Kejriwal’s “promise” to discourage and reduce liquor consumption in the Capital a “farce”.

According to Swaraj Abhiyan, the Delhi government under AAP spent merely ` 16,000

on de- addiction drives.

The figure, the outfit said, were taken from official records.

“The government gave four different replies to four RTI queries on liquor shops. But on digging deep we found that a startling 399 new licences have been granted till August 10. It must have crossed 400 by now,” Swaraj Abhiyan said in a statement.

Slamming Mr Kejriwal, the former AAP leader said it was ironical that he

harped on the importance of taking consent of the people and especially women, in his book ‘ Swaraj’, before opening new liquor shops. Mr Yadav also played a purported video clip of Mr Kejriwal making a similar promise during his campaigns for the assembly election.

He said the empowering of mohalla sabhas in this regard is an eyewash since these bodies do not have any legal standing as yet.

— BIPLAB BANERJEE A visitor browses through books at the Delhi Book Fair, which began at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Saturday. The fair was inaugurated by Union minister of science and technology Harsh Vardhan. A guide and a mobile app for the fair was also launched.