Disposing of a public interest litigation filed by Ramkumar Aditya, a division bench of Justices CT Selvam and Basheer Ahamed directed the government to consider the plea and set up the centres within eight weeks.

The petitioner said in the last two years, 75 people had died every month due to addiction to liquor. He said though more than 1,000 shops had been closed, the number of people affected by liquor was increasing every year. At present, rehabilitation centres were located only in medical college hospitals, he said, adding, he had given a representation to set up similar centres in 2017.