IMPHAL: The Manipur Government is clearing its decks for a beer factory in the state. The proposed factory will utilize local products like ginger and pineapple.
This was what Chief Minister N Biren Singh announced a couple of days after the government partially lifted the prohibition on liquor.
In his address at a function in Imphal on Friday, Singh said that local fruits have good demand outside and that the export of local brews utilizing these horticultural products would fetch good revenue for the state.
According to the Chief Minister, the proposed beer factor would help a section of the people shun the poppy cultivation and they could be engaged in pineapple and ginger cultivation.
A team from outside was engaged to check the process of production in such places and bring the quality to a certain level of standard so that the liquors could be exported outside the State, said the Chief Minister.
He said that the government had nothing to do with the practice of making local liquor by a few indigenous communities.
He said that the partial lifting of the ban on sale and consumption of liquor was not sudden and that the Cabinet decision was taken after a series of consultation and recommendations from committees set up to study it.
Singh observed that there a set of regulations would be in place on sale and consultation of liquor.
The government was drafting a rule in this regard and sought suggestions from civil society organisations and experts.
Notably, over the years many farmers have been resorting to poppy cultivation in the hills area in the absence of a viable source of income. A set of stringent measures is in place now to destroy poppy cultivation.
However, illegal poppy cultivation continues to thrive in interior areas of the state and this had become a headache for the local administration as well as the state government.
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