Need to safeguard traditional toddy tapping industry: Excise Minister M. Liju

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There is an urgent need to protect and preserve the credibility of Kerala’s toddy tapping industry, which is one of the surviving traditional industries of the State, by ensuring that only pure and unadulterated toddy reaches consumers, Excise Minister M. Liju said in the House on Wednesday.

Replying to a calling attention motion moved by A. Prabhakaran, on the need to protect the toddy tapping industry and its workers, Mr. Liju said that the toddy tapping sector was facing several crises, particularly because of the lack of infusion of new labour force into the field, the issue of the physical labour involved and also because of the credibility crisis surrounding toddy as such.

He said that there were serious concerns regarding vast discrepancies in the amount of toddy actually tapped from the trees and the quantity of toddy supplied through shops across the State, leading to many speculations about the health consequences that can arise due to the consumption of spurious toddy.

Mr. Liju said that it was to ensure the availability of only pure and unadulterated toddy in the market that the Excise department has launched ‘Operation Shuddhi’. It has devised an extensive State-wide action plan to ensure the health and safety of consumers and to prevent the manufacture of fake toddy. Inspections have been intensified in major toddy-producing areas such as Chittoor in Palakkad and toddy shops in various districts to check the production and sale of adulterated toddy. Some 1,457 samples of toddy had been collected from over 2,740 toddy shops and sent for analysis, he said.

What the department is planning is a total revamp of the sector, including ensuring the availability of unadulterated toddy alone, toddy tappers’ welfare as well as bringing in good quality and variety of coconut trees for producing better toddy, so that the toddy tapping industry can be properly revived, Mr. Liju said.

The government has not yet released its Excise policy, and discussions will involve all stak