The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Mahila Satta demands closure of ‘belt’ shops

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Saturday, Jan 12, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Mahila Satta demands closure of ‘belt’ shops

NO TO LIQUOR: Mahila Satta activists staging a sit-in in front of the Excise Commissioner’s office in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD: Activists of the State Mahila Satta (Lok Satta’s women’s wing) on Friday staged a sit-in at the Excise Commissioner’s office here demanding closure of 1.5 lakh ‘belt shops’ across the State and 8,600 wine shops/licensed bars.

Led by K. Gita Murthy, State Working Committee member, they submitted memoranda to Excise Commissioner Hiralal Samaria and Transport Commissioner Poonam Malakondaiah, besides sending a fax to Governor N.D. Tiwari listing the demands.

The demands include banning public drinking at wine shops/licenced bars, running of wine shops/licenced bars by the government with fixed timings and ending the practice of offering liquor during election time.

According to Ms. Gita Murthy, the sit-in was a part of the continuing agitation by the party against running of belt shops. The party would send a list of four villages---where the government had denied existence of belt shops---for claiming Rs.1-lakh incentive.

In the memorandum, the Transport Commissioner was given a list of wine shops/bars/dhabas which were serving liquor on the Vijayawada and Mumbai highways following her promise to close them. S. Manorama, State Working Committee member, and D. Saroja, Mahila Satta general secretary, were among those who took part in the protest.

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