Indian Church bodies have opposed the communist-led government’s plan to boost the availability of liquor in IT parks to target youths in southern Kerala state. The Kerala government is planning to allow “unrestricted flow of liquor to benefit the liquor lobby at the cost of public health,” warned Father Antony Vadakkekara, spokesperson of Kerala-based Syro-Malabar Church. When the communist government of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan came to power eight years ago it promised to reduce consumption of liquor. Now it is planning to dilute laws, alleged the Vincentian priest. The pro-posed changes to the liquor policy came to light after an audio clip of a bar owner went viral, hinting at the govern-ment’s alleged willingness to favour bar owners for a bribe to the tune of 200 million Indian rupees (US$24,06,082).
In the clip, he is heard saying that the government was ready to allow liquor shops to function on the first day of every month which is a dry day in the southern state. He further claim-ed the government was willing to allow liquor outlets to remain open after 11 p.m. and open more liquor outlets in IT parks across the state. Kerala, known for its highest literacy among India’s 28 provincial states, has nearly 90 well-known IT parks. Technopark, based in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram, employs around 72,000 professionals and houses a diverse mix of multinational corporations. In the central Ernakulam district, InfoPark employs over 63,600 staff. Kerala is the only Indian state where communists are in power.