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Subsidies to distilleries are in farmers’ interest, says government

The government is providing subsidies to distilleries manufacturing food grain-based wine to protect farmers’ interests, the Bombay high court was informed.

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The government is providing subsidies to distilleries manufacturing food grain-based wine to protect farmers’ interests, the Bombay high court was informed on Thursday.

An affidavit filed by Prakash Gaud, Joint Secretary, Home, states that the decision by the government in 2005, was completely in ‘public interest’ and it being a policy decision, the judiciary cannot interfere in it.

According to the government, the demand for alcohol - both for drinking as well as industry - is increasing, so encouraging food grain-based distilleries makes sense. In recent years, “there has been an 80 per cent surge in the demand for industrial alcohol over the average consumption of 20-22 crore litres per annum”.

“The combined expected future requirement of alcohol was projected at around 60 crore litres,” Gaud’s affidavit states.
In the affidavit filed in the high court, the government has, surprisingly, also stated that jowar is not a primary cereal consumed in the state, and therefore its use for liquor production will not affect “food security”.

The affidavit was filed by Gaud, in reply to a PIL by social activist Chetan Kamble that objects to a government scheme giving subsidies to distilleries using food grain for production of liquor (ethyl alcohol).

The upcoming liquor units would mostly use jowar, it states. Further, the affidavit says that farmers who grow jowar would benefit from the government’s policy to encourage these distilleries, as price of food grain would go up. When the subsidy scheme for food-grain-based distilleries was announced, it drew heavy criticism by opposition parties. It was alleged that this would create scarcity of food grain, and increase inflation. But, the government affidavit says that the policy would, in fact, help farmers who have no access to irrigation, and grow only rain-fed crops such as jowar.

On Thursday, when the PIL came up for hearing, before a division bench of Chief Justice Anil Dave and Justice S C Dharmadhikari, the bench refused to hear it. A new bench will be constituted to hear it.

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