HP Beverages Ltd wound up

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 10

In a major decision taken today, the Cabinet at its meeting in the Vidhan Sabha complex decided to wound up Himachal Pradesh Beverages Limited (HPBL). The HPBL was created by the previous Congress government to trade in liquor.

The Cabinet also decided to order an inquiry into the losses suffered by the state exchequer due to the creation of the HPBL and abolition of old policy. The previous government had suspended the L-ID and L-13 D given for wholesale trade of liquor.

Instead, the government created the HPBL and transferred the entire wholesale trade to it.

At that time, allegations were levelled that selected brands of liquor were sold through the HPBL and due to delay in procurement and further distribution of liquor to retailers, the government suffered losses.

The Cabinet had asked the officials to fix the responsibility on the persons responsible for creation of the HPBL and causing loss to state exchequer.

It was also decided that the old system of wholesale would be restored and the wholesale liquor licences would preferably be given to residents.

As the announcement of the Chief Minister made yesterday, the Cabinet also decided to withdraw all politically motivated cases filed by the previous government against political opponents. The HPCA against whom many cases were filed would be the main beneficiary.

The Cabinet also decided to disengage three former Congress union ministers, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid as counsel for representing the state in various cases, including the HPCA. The Cabinet has sought report on whose direction a huge fee was paid to the advocates to represent the state. The advocates also used to represent Virbhadra Singh in ED and CBI cases.

The Cabinet also decided to increase the procurement price of citrus fruit like kinnow, malta, galgal and oranges under the Market Intervention Scheme. The procurement price for kinnow, malta, and oranges for the B category will be Rs 7 per kilogram and for C category Rs 6.50. For galgal the procurement price will be Rs 5.50 per kg. The meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.