'Drinking alcohol will remove virus from throat': Congress MLA appeals to Rajasthan CM to reopen liquor shops

Jaipur: In yet another case of politicians coming up with bizarre excuses to get the liquor ban lifted amid coronavirus lockdown, a Congress MLA on Thursday wrote a letter to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot urging him to order reopening of liquor shops in the state.

In his letter to the Chief Minister, Sangod Congress MLA Bharat Singh Kundanpur stated that due to the ongoing lockdown, the state government is incurring heavy financial losses while illegal businesses are flourishing across the state.

"The government is losing money while people are at major health risk due to spurious liquor in circulation. In order to help both the government and people, it would be wise to reopen the liquor shops in the state," he wrote.

The Congress leader then went on to say that just like coronavirus can be removed by washing hands with alcohol, drinking liquor will surely remove the virus from the throat as well. It is much better than drinking spurious liquor, he added.

Bharat Singh's letter has come a day after the Rajasthan government hiked excise duty on Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) to 35 per cent and other liquor categories, including beer, to 45 per cent with immediate effect.

Meanwhile, three more COVID-19 deaths were reported in Rajasthan on Thursday taking the total death toll in the state to 58. As per health officials,  at least 2584 people have tested positive for the deadly virus so far in the state.

The COVID-19 patients in Rajasthan include two Italian citizens and 61 people brought from Iran, who have been put up in Army health centres in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. Jaipur has reported the highest number of cases with 907 infections, followed by 510 in Jodhpur.