Demand to ban liquor gains momentum

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, August 31

Residents, especially women, have started demanding a complete ban on liquor sale in the state, on the lines of Gujarat and Bihar.

Women groups under the Mahila Mangal Dal in Uttarkashi, Tehri, Pauri and other districts of the state are up against the increase in liquor consumption among the men of the region which is affecting their lives adversely. Thus, the women have come out in protest against the opening of new liquor vends in the state.

Sunita Devi, Sushma Devi, Vimla Devi, Jagdamba Devi and Prabha Devi from Neri village in Uttarkashi district are agitated at the opening of liquor vends near their villages and have opposed it in the past too.

Men drink liquor bought from the vends that have opened near their villages and often enter into brawls on petty issues, making life difficult for women, said Guddi Devi.

Mukesh Semwal, state coordinator of the Social Unity Center of India (SUCI), says social activists are up against liquor consumption in the region. They had destroyed a liquor manufacturing unit at Raadi village in 2012. The self-help groups from Banswada and Khankra villages on the route to Kedarnath also launched a massive protest a few months ago with some success, Semwal said.

State supported corruption had led to the opening of liquor vends in the villages, he added.

Kishan Singh Panwar, president of Kempty Traders Association, said the menace of liquor has given rise to evils, such as gambling, in the simple village life, adding to the list of criminal activities that were negligible earlier. He said the trader community had submitted a memorandum to the Kempty Police Station in charge to curb the menace of liquor consumption and gambling that had become rampant in their village, vitiating the peaceful atmosphere of the town.

Upendar, a resident of Mussoorie, said a concerted policy on liquor consumption was needed and it should not be that it is available in Mussoorie but not in villages. That would bring more misery as people from villages would rush to Mussoorie to buy liquor, thus spending more in the process and entering the vicious cycle of poverty. The ban should be in the whole state.

Women, under the aegis of self-help groups from Kirti Nagar, are also up against liquor sale in the region. They, along with UKD (Panwar) group, sat on a dharna at the Tehsil headquarters in Kirti Nagar yesterday. They said the government was more interested in distributing new liquor licences but was not interested in using the resources already available in the state. The people opposing liquor consumption and sale in the state said it was destroying the youth of the state and resulting in more unemployment and health hazards. Hence, a complete ban was the only option.