Excise Department withdraws controversial circular on liquor ‘awareness’

Thiruvananthapuram: The Excise Department has withdrawn a controversial circular which said that its officials would hold an "awareness class" against serving liquor at homes where marriages are scheduled to be solemnised.

The circular came out on Tuesday apparently without the knowledge of Excise Commissioner Rishiraj Singh and mandated Excise department officials will have to reach every home where a marriage is being held and speak against the ill-effects of consuming alcohol.

Soon after the order came out, the social media went wild over this intrusion of privacy, and Singh, who is a police official of the director general rank, and other top officials started receiving numerous phone calls of complaint. The department soon withdrew the circular and launched a probe to find out the person behind this.

Attacking the government, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala termed the order an "atrocious and an extreme step of intrusion into the privacy of homes".

"The Left government is in a dizzy state and has no clue of what they are doing. In the morning, they come out with one circular and in the evening it is withdrawn," the Congress leader added.