Hyderabad: Former minister T Harish Rao alleged that the state govt opened the door to fresh corruption in the excise department following the Singareni tender scam. He claimed that 110 applications had been received for microbrewery licences and that 25 licences had been earmarked for political leaders and ministers.Under a key leader’s quota, he said, 21 licences were kept ready, while the remaining four were reserved under a minister’s quota.Speaking to the media at Telangana Bhavan on Wednesday, Harish Rao said that a person acting as a close aide of a senior leader had recently come into the spotlight. “I have information that unofficial agreements were made to collect ₹1.8 crore per licence. Out of this amount, ₹1.5 crore is intended for the senior leader and ₹30 lakh for the intermediary acting on his behalf.”He also claimed that wine shop licences had been issued to select individuals without the mandatory lucky draw process being conducted.“For the first time in the state’s history, liquor supply companies are facing pending dues of nearly ₹4,500 crore. For the last 16 months, payments to liquor-supplying companies have not been released. Such a situation has never occurred before. As a result of this negligence, the supply of Breezer completely stopped in many parts of the state,” said the former minister.He said that several multinational liquor companies had repeatedly written to the state govt, warning that they would stop supplying due to non-payment of dues. “While beer manufacturing companies are receiving full support, farmers are being completely neglected,” said the BRS leader.
