Muthalamada Panchayat denies distillery licence

PALAKKAD: The Congress-ruled Muthalamada grama panchayat has finally decided not to grant licence to the controversial distillery there. Earlier, the ruling committee of the panchayat which met on April 28 had decided to constitute a subcommittee to study the situation and take a decision. But now the panchayat has decided to disband the subcommittee and not to grant licence to the distillery, said the president of the Muthalamada grama panchayat S V Selvan.He said that the subcommittee consisted of the president of the panchayat, vice-president, three standing committee chairmen, two ward members, Thiruchandran of the CPM and K B Pradeep Kumar of the BJP.In the 20-member grama panchayat, the Congress has nine members, CPM eight and the BJP three.Selvan said that the panchayat would also inform the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee of its protest on the decision of the government to grant the licence without consulting the local panchayat.Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had said that the government had cleared the proposal for the distillery on the basis of a court order. He said that this did not prevent the Muthalamada panchayat from saying “no” to the distillery due to water shortage or other environmental problems.“The Muthalamada panchayat or the Congress party will not grant any licence or approval for a distillery which will be against the interests of the people,“ said Selvan.He also called for an enquiry into the working of Imperial Spirits in Meenkara which has been functioning for the last 10 years in the panchayat.