My recent friend Mr Yasir MB shared an article: “Punjab villages say no to booze, will move HC” by Neel Kamal & Parvesh Sharma (9 Feb, 2011, TOI), according to which hundreds of villages in Punjab's Sangrur and Patiala districts are bracing for a legal battle with the state's excise department over proliferating booze trade. The panchayats in the area, where alcoholism touches nearly 60% of male population don't want liquor vends and plan to go to court to get rid of those booz vends. The unusual news prompted me to assess the scenario vis-à-vis liquor trade in our islands.
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niversally, alcoholism is considered the greatest threat to intellectual development and societal well being of a country. WHO estimates every year about 2.5 million people die from alcohol-related diseases the world over, accounting for 3.8 per cent of total deaths. Binge drinkers are prone to strokes, brain haemorrhage and a variety of psychiatric symptoms. Acoholism damages central nerves system (CNS). Wife beating, misplaced emotions, neglecting family, divorce, sexual abuse, absenteeism from work, poverty and degraded quality of life is widespread among alcoholics. The irony is there seems no concern at any level to curb the menace. Our islands, specially Port Blair and adjoining areas are becoming a beehive of bars courtesy those officials who are in favour of promoting liquor sales. Right from bending rules to sidelining public complaint, everything is in vogue and considered fair. Technically, a bar may be located at a distance of 51 m from educational institution! What difference it makes whether it is 51 m or 200 m, because on the way to school, a child would have crossed as many as a dozen bars. Some may even have a bar at their doorstep. The question is do we want our children to have a frayed childhood, grow up with complexes and prejudices? Do we want them to become a burden on the society? The sadest part is administration through its commercial arm ANIIDCO is the harbinger of liquor trade in these
islands? The youth coordinator informed ANIIDCO during the last fisical sold liquor to the tune of ` 63 Crores. As per a rough estimate, in 2007 ANIIDCO sold around 25 lakh litres of liquor including beer. Illicit brew and leakage from defense adds another 8 lakh litres. The islands are virtually drenched on hard liquor with consumption close to 3 million litres per annum! The moot question is does the government really need this kind of income? When our island condition does not allow us to be self sufficient meaning there is no escape from relying on doles from the centre, then why make money through a scourge which is eating into the vitals of our society right from Campbell Bay to Aerial Bay? There had been some sporadic effort by some quarter of the civil society, A&N Police against bootlegging and few NGO’s such as Humane Touch registering protest to curb the menace, but given the unholy nexus between sarkari babus, officials and businessmen, success seems a distant dream. But we cannot remain mute witness to the societal degradation any more. The evil is taking even our children into its clutches. Its time to unite and tell the administration we are against liquor trade in our islands. We need to understand alcoholism is not mere partying a little too much but a potentially serious problem vying to take control and tear our social fabric. Are we going to allow such a thing to happen? Utter your answer loudly for everybody to hear clearly. Cheers for life!
Debkumar Bhadra, Bambooflat (debkumar_bhadra@yahoo.com) and Zubair Ahmed, Wimberly Gunj (zubairpbl@gmail.com)