With renewed focus on the new Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy, an old video of his started doing rounds on social media where he explained why he never consumed alcohol.
In an interview in Open Heart With RK, a popular chat show hosted by seasoned journalist Vemuri Radhakrishna, Reddy explained why he never got into alcohol consumption despite it being an integral part of the state's culture.
"In my younger days I grew up in a village and saw my extended family members getting involved in clashes and going to jail several times because they were under the influence of alcohol. So, that has had an impact on my psyche and I never got used to it," said Reddy in the video from October 2021.
Revanth Reddy was born on November 8, 1969 in Kondareddy Palli of Mahboobnagar district (in present-day Nagarkurnool district, Telangana).
In terms of meat and liquor consumption, Telangana stood on top among the states, revealed a report submitted by Telangana State Sheep & Goat Development Co-operative Federation Limited to the state government in November 2022 . The National annual per capita consumption of meat in Telangana is 21.7 kg.
The survey on alcohol consumption was conducted by the Union ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The number of boozers in Telangana is higher than that the national average of 17.3 percent, showed the report.
"I spend all my 24 hours with people, I neither drink nor have any business. I'm with party workers 24*7. At an age when people usually get addicted to it, I never got into it and later I never felt the need for it. Also, if we decide to be leader of people we should steer clear of a few weaknesses. A leader should have a clean record and no one should be able to point at anything unsavoury in their record," said Reddy when he was Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief.
"90% of people who talk on phone are just chit chatting without anything productive in their conversations and waste time complaining and spreading rumours about others. Some people call at 1 am and I pick up thinking they are in danger and ask 'what are you doing?'. What do we do at 1 am? Also, they tell me that at that time of the day they are having drinks together and make me talk to their friends. Because of that disturbance I'm unable to sleep for another two hours. Those people have time to sleep all morning but at 7 am I have visitors at my house. Even if I sleep at 5 am, I make sure I'm ready to meet people by 8 am.
"I'm always available, either at home or at my district or Gandhi Bhavan. The people who call me just want to talk about state and national politics. Also, in the KCR government, situation is such that wife and husband also don't trust each other," Reddy added.
Meanwhile, Sreenivasa Reddy, newly-appointed Police Commissioner of Hyderabad, said that Telangana CM Revanth Reddy wants a drug-free Hyderabad.
"I want to tell drug gangs and those promoting drugs that they pack off. Leave our city, our state. We are not going to tolerate you however big you are," he said.
Stating that the police would tackle the drug menace sternly to achieve the goal of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to make Telangana and Hyderabad free from drugs, he said the focus will be on places where there is incidence of drug abuse. Sreenivasa Reddy warned pubs, high-end bars and restaurants and farm houses that if they indulge in such illicit activities, strong action will be taken against them.
He also mentioned some people in the film industry are using drugs.
The police chief said they would hold talks with the industry bodies like Film Chambers to curb substance abuse in the industry.
"Some people in the cine industry are behaving like children by organising parties and encouraging use of drugs. Drugs are available because there is a demand. Without demand, there is no supply. If they don't listen, they are in for punishment," he said.
The IPS officer of 1994 batch took the charge from Sandeep Shandilya, who has been posted as director of Telangana State Anti-Narcotics Bureau.
Before being appointed the Police Commissioner, Sreenivasa Reddy was working as Additional DGP, Organisation & Legal.