Antony in a fix over auctioning toddy shops

thiruvananthapuram: the toddy shop auctioning issue has put the four-month-old congress (i)-led antony government in kerala in a fix, catching itself between the devil and the deep sea. the antony government is unwittingly mired between the hostile christian church and the sree narayana dharma paripalana (sndp), representing the powerful ezhava community, with the former expressing itself strongly against handing over of the toddy shops to abkari contractors and the latter strongly canvassing for it.though the kerala catholic bishops council was not against the dissolution of the toddy cooperatives, they could not accept the move to hand over the toddy shops to abkari contractors which did not form part of the election manifesto. and the council felt auctioning away the toddy shops for huge amount was an indirect sanction to adulterate toddy whose consequence would be another liquor tragedy and loss of hundreds of lives. standing on the other side, sndp yogam general secretary vellappally natesan wanted the government to stick to its promise of dismantling the toddy cooperatives and entrust the job to toddy contractors. the toddy shop issue assumes special significance in the context of the fact that antony, who always advocated for stage by stage prohibition, was at the helm now. moreover, it was antony who abolished the manufacture and sale of arrack in the state when he was chief minister during 1995-96.