Excise and mines minister Kollu Ravindra asserted that the state government is streamlining sale of liquor and free sand supply in Andhra Pradesh. Addressing a review meeting related to his departments in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday, he highlighted how sand mining had been exploited by mafia over the past five years, leading to violence and undermining of construction industry. However, after the NDA alliance government brought in the free sand policy and streamlined supply in partnership with boatmen associations and private transporters, sand is now easily accessible.
This has given a boost to the construction sector, he maintained. Regarding liquor, the minister said within two months of coming to power, they have streamlined the excise department. They brought in transparency in allotment of retail liquor shops.
“Excise department received 90,000 applications for these shops, indicating people’s trust in the government,” he underlined. Ravindra assured that as promised ahead of the elections, state government will supply quality liquor at lower rates. He said a system has been put in place where the quality of liquor is checked at nine stages and every bottle is tracked.
The minister said they have taken adequate steps to check cultivation, harvesting and sale of ganja. He said special squads will soon be deployed to eradicate the menace..