Liquor sales in Kerala likely from Thursday

The Kerala government is all set to resume the sale of legal alcohol from Thursday.

It hopes to restrict people from queuing up at liquor shops by deploying a mobile phone application, Bev Q. The software enables customers to place their order in advance by mobile and collect the parcels from liquor stores at a predetermined time.

Excise Minister T. P. Ramakrishnan reportedly told the cabinet, which met here on Wednesday, that the success of the move largely depended on the potential of the application to handle a large volume of orders without crashing. He is scheduled to make a public announcement in the afternoon.

The Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), the State-owned liquor monopoly, has put the application on trial and given the government the green light to proceed. It has also made a provision for citizens to place their order through a text message.

Citizens could use the same application to buy liquor as takeaways at liquor store rates from bars and beer and wine parlours. The government has also allowed private clubs to dispense liquor as takeaways to members from Thursday.

Watch | When liquor shops reopened in several Indian States

Next Chief Secretary

The cabinet has decided to name Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Biswas Mehta, as the next Chief Secretary. The incumbent Chief Secretary, Tom Jose, is scheduled to retire on May 31.

It might also ask Mr Jose to continue to serve the State as coordinator of COVID-19 prevention task force.

The cabinet has also engineered a reshuffled in the top echelons of the bureaucracy. Additional Chief Secretary T. K. Jose is likely to replace Mr Mehta as secretary, Home.

V. Jayatilak is tipped to be the next Secretary, Revenue. The incumbent secretary V. Venu is likely to be posted as Secretary, State Planning Board. K. Gopalakrishnan is the new district collector, Malappuram.