The Telangana state government has witnessed unprecedented rush from Seemandhra businessmen for setting up liquor shops in Telangana.

The Telangana government recently issued notification inviting applications to set up liquor shops.

It increased liquor shops from 2,216 to 2,620.

The last date to submit applications ended today (Thursday).

The government received nearly 60,000 applications for setting up 2,620 liquor shops.

The liquor shops will be allotted through a draw of lots.

Of the 60,000 applications, it is learnt that there are over 20,000 applications from liquor traders, who are natives of Andhra Pradesh.
Liquor traders from Rayalaseema and Andhra regions submitted applications in huge numbers.

The rush is because of the Jagan government in Andhra Pradesh taking over liquor business after coming to power in 2019.

The AP government is running liquor shops on its own and not issuing licences to private individuals unlike earlier prior to 2019.

With this, liquor traders from AP are competing to set up shops in Telangana.

The application fees is Rs 2 lakh which is non-refundable, Despite this, the AP traders submitted applications in large numbers as
Telangana government has given a provision allowing each person to submit any number of applications.

The Telangana government has earned Rs 1,200 crore through application fees alone.

The Telangana government has decided to provide reservation to Gouds, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes in allotment of liquor shops in the state.

The state Cabinet decided to give 15 per cent reservation to Goud, 10 per cent to SCs and five per cent to STs.

The decision was taken as per the recent assurance given by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

The six-hour-long Cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister took several key decisions.

It instructed the medical and health officials to prepare comprehensive plans for the development of health infrastructure in the state and place it before the next Cabinet meeting.

It reviewed the construction of four super specialty hospitals in Hyderabad. It directed the department to take immediate measures for the construction of these hospitals.

The Roads and Buildings, and the Medical and Health Departments were directed to make arrangements for the opening of the new medical colleges from the coming year.

Medical and Health Department officials briefed the Cabinet on the Covid-19 situation in the state, especially after reopening of schools and other educational institutions. They said after opening of the schools and colleges, there was no increase in the corona cases and the situation was under total control. All the required medicines, vaccination, oxygen, and test kits are available.

The Cabinet instructed Medical and Health Department officials to increase the oxygen production capacity to 550 tonnes per day from the present 280 tonnes. The capacity of oxygen generation was earlier increased from 130 tonnes to 280 tonnes per day.

The officials informed the Cabinet that the state is ready to face corona if it hits the children. As a precautionary measure, 5,200 beds have been provided at a cost of Rs 133 crore exclusively to treat children.

About Covid vaccination, they said two crore people have been administered vaccines so far. A special drive to vaccinate 3 lakh people every day was launched on Thursday. The Cabinet has instructed every village, Mandal, district level Panchayat Raj, Municipal Administration officials, Sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs, MPP, ZP Chairperson, MLAs, MLCs and other public representatives to play an active role for the success of the special vaccination.

The Cabinet discussed rainfall details, the extent of land cultivated during the Monsoon season, estimates on crops yield etc. It discussed the purchase of crops during the monsoon and the preparedness of the marketing department.

It also sanctioned Rs 100 crore in addition to Rs 300 crore already sanctioned for the repairs of roads in the state due to the heavy rains recently.

The Cabinet also approved Sangameswar, and Basaveswara Lift Irrigation Schemes to provide water to 3.84 lakh acres in Sangareddy, Andol, Zaheerabad and Narayankhed Assembly segments.