100 Congress men figure in ACB list: Babu

VIJAYAWADA: Alleging that many Congress MLAs, ministers and others have shares in liquor business, leader of the opposition and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu has said the names of about 100 Congress leaders figure in the ACB list that was prepared after the raids on liquor syndicates.Naidu visited the two private hospitals here where liquor victims are undergoing treatment and later the thandas in Mylavaram mandal where the tragedy claimed the lives of 18 people and made many others sick.Addressing the people and relatives of the liquor tragedy victims at Kanimerla thanda, Naidu announced Rs 50,000 financial assistance by his party to the kin of each one who died after consuming the spurious liquor. Launching a scathing attack on chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy for not visiting the place though 18 people belonging to weaker sections had lost their lives, Naidu said Reddy should own responsibility for the government's failure to contain the illicit liquor menace and resign from his office."If the government enforces liquor sale at MRP or at cheaper rates, people would not go for illicit and spurious liquor. The government is selling 50 gm of liquor at Rs 100 though the production cost is just Rs 7. Since 50 gm of illicit liquor is available at Rs 10, people are going for illicitlydistilled spurious liquor rather than government liquor. There are no uniform rates for liquor in the state. Belt shops are seen everywhere,'' he said and claimed that there was no illicit liquor production or syndicates during the TDP's rule.Saying that the government was earning Rs 18,500 crore from liquor business, he alleged that Rs 5,000 crore was going into the pockets of Congress leaders from liquor syndicate. Konnakalla Satyanarayana (MP), Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, T Prabhakar and Sriram Rajagopal (MLAs), YVB Rajendraprasad (MLC), Varla Ramaih, Vallabhaneni Vamsi and others accompanied Naidu.