YSRCP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy came to power in 2019 Assembly polls on the promise of imposing ‘prohibition’ in the state in a phased manner.
Soon after coming to power, Jagan reduced the number of liquor shops and bars in AP. He took over liquor shops from private individuals and started running liquor shops under the control of the government. Jagan stopped the sale of all popular liquor brands in AP like Kingfisher, Royal Challenge, Black Dog, Teachers etc and introduced ‘unknown brands’. While taking these steps. He increased prices of liquor sharply. Jagan said that all this was being done to discourage liquor consumption. impose total ban on liquor in AP by the time he completes his five year term as CM.
But Jagan’s steps on controlling liquor sales in AP stopped within a year. Jagan started encouraging liquor sales with an eye on earning revenues for the state government like all other states are doing in the country.
Jagan recently permitted the sale of all popular liquor brands in AP as a “New Year gift” from this month January.
Now, Jagan issued orders on Monday (today) increasing the timings of liquor shops by one more hour. All these days, the liquor shops were allowed to open till 9 pm in the night. Now, it has been extended to 10 pm.
This measure was reportedly taken to further increase liquor sales in AP and earn more revenues for the cash-strapped AP government.
