Excise Minister Kyrmen Shylla has said that the state government is keen on producing world-class local wine and is committed to extend its support local entrepreneurs and wine making units.
“We are serious and we are supporting the local winemakers in whichever ways and means we can,” he said yesterday. “We hope to see our locally made wine go not throughout the country but the whole world and for that, we need to have huge production and the quality should be world-class,” he added.
He said the government also hopes to construct a laboratory to check and test the quality of local wine.
On the narrative of certain segments of the society that this is not a healthy trend to promote, he said, “Until and unless we make our state a dry state we cannot blame the local wine. Look at it with a positive outlook it gives opportunity for employment and livelihood but even food if taken a lot will affect your health similarly liquor also”.
He reasoned that at a time when government jobs are scarce the readily available options should be turned into opportunities to provide livelihood options for the people.
To a query on the lengthy process of acquiring the license to produce local wine, he said, “We cannot cut down the process as the rules need to be followed but yes we can speed it up and if there are any issues with our department we are here to help them and we will do the needful but we cannot by bypass laid down rules.”
