THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the government has no intention to implement liquor ban in the State and the toddy shops will reopen on May 13.

When asked about other liquor shops, he said “it will be decided later”.

The chief minister was speaking at the evening press conference on Wednesday after Covid review meeting.

“To prepare coconut trees for tapping toddy, permission was given much earlier. And now, the workers have begun tapping toddy. They just have to take it to toddy shops. If toddy is not collected at least now, it will have to be wasted.

Therefore , there was requests for procuring toddy and distributing it through toddy shops and we have taken a decision accordingly. .
We’ll see whether people can be allowed to sit inside toddy shops and consume toddy,” he said.

The chief minister added that it had not come to his notice that the Excise department is not permitting toddy tapping.