'Don't shift zoo out of Old City'
Hyderabad: The AIMIM has demanded imposition of total prohibition, with party’s floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi declaring in the Assembly on Tuesday that the state’s race to increase liquor sales for generating revenue was destroying the lives of “every mother, daughter, wife, and sister.”
The AIMIM MLA from Chandrayangutta, also castigated the government for letting pubs and bars have a free run and doing as they please. “Pubs and bars have become drug dealing dens. The younger generation is falling prey. There is no campaign by the government on the ill-effects of alcohol consumption,” he said.
He said the state had some 2,260 liquor outlets, around 1,330 bars and pubs, and more than 8,300 toddy shops. “There are belt shops everywhere. We need a debate on this subject. The department regulating liquor is called Prohibition & Excise. Where is the prohibition? Total prohibition is my demand, the demand of my party, and I am also making this on behalf of all the women in Telangana,” Owaisi said.
During the debate in the Assembly on demands for grants for various departments, Owaisi also slammed the government for making plans to move the Nehru Zoological Park out of the Old City of Hyderabad. “The High Court is going, the city police commissioner’s office is gone. Now there is talk of taking the zoo away. Very soon, I am certain that a day will come when an announcement will come saying we will move the Salar Jung Museum out of the Old City. Are these happening because it is Muslims living in the Old City?” he asked.
Legislative affairs minister D Sridhar Babu responded saying that the Congress government considers the Old City as the ‘original city’ of Hyderabad. There is no discrimination whatsoever, he assured the AIMIM MLA.
Owaisi also spoke on the conditions in schools, colleges, and urged the government to focus on the infrastructure and staff in existing schools, and demanded that the Congress keep its promise of allocating 15 per cent of the Budget to education. “In this budget it is just 7.9 per cent of the Budget. The Congress must keep its promise on education budget,” he said.
