Brewing problem

It would seem that an anti-alcohol movement is brewing in Punjab and Haryana. As many as 58 panchayats in Punjab want liquor vends shut in their villages in 2020-21. In Haryana, 704 gram panchayats have passed a resolution to close liquor shops in their villages. It is not difficult to guess why this sentiment is prevailing. Families, particularly women, in the region have been bearing the brunt of such disastrous consequences of the brew’s consumption as alcoholism, health problems, domestic violence and indebtedness. Liquor vends tend to be trouble spots of drunken brawls and rowdy behaviour, sucking into the abhorrent net even innocent passersby, especially in villages. While women run the risk of being targeted by tipplers, children’s psyche is impacted by exposure to their male elders’ drinking and raucous bouts and they are in peril of being hooked to the menace.

Realising the formidable vote bank of rural women, politicians have tapped into this social issue that resonates with the section suffering from alcohol abuse. It is thus that the panchayats came to be empowered with passing resolutions to shut liquor shops in their villages. Ultimately, the resolution gets the excise authorities’ stamp on the condition that there has been no case of liquor seizure for the preceding two years in the village. This provision is to ensure that there is no illegal sale of booze. The Haryana Government went a step further in November last year, a month after the Assembly elections. In a devolution of powers to the people, it decided to allow prohibition of liquor sale in a village if 10 per cent members of a gram sabha (village voters) pass a resolution.

But the high rate of rejection of the well-intentioned resolutions points to challenges of implementation. In Punjab, against 86 panchayats wanting the shops shut in 2017-18, only 21 were closed. Haryana’s record is similar. To honour the people’s wishes, the governments need to have the will to plug the gap that comes in the way: rampant bootlegging. With very few convictions, this illegal activity is thriving at the cost of the state revenue.