State govt may yet lower drinking age?

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: State Excise Minister K Gopalaiah’s written reply to the Council on Thursday raised concerns about the plan to lower the drinking age still being considered despite its supposed withdrawal last month. The original plan was to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18 years as a part of a highlevel committee’s mandate to remove “redundant aspects” of the excise law and rules.

The proposal had drawn a lot of flak from a section of society and the Opposition who had been asked to submit objections within 30 days. Upon this, the Excise Department had issued an official statement, saying the plan to lower the drinking age had been withdrawn.

However, when Congress MLC K Govindaraj posed a question on the same on the floor of the House, the reply by the minister left room for doubt. Gopalaiah answered that the State government had invited suggestions from citizens on the draft notification to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18.

The redundancies that the high-level committee had sought to fix are the Karnataka Excise Act forbidding the sale of liquor to persons under 18 years. On the other hand, Rule 10 of (1)(e) of the Karnataka Excise (General Conditions of Licences) Rules, says that the sale of liquor to persons below 21 years is illegal.

Some MLCs urged the State government to not go ahead with the plan to lower the drinking age. When Gopalaiah was asked about the purported rise in domestic violence in rural areas due to the consumption of alcohol, he replied that the issue was not relevant to the Excise Department.