The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : 'Liquor units will guzzle ground water'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 23, 2004

Other States

Other States - Rajasthan

'Liquor units will guzzle ground water'

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, JULY 22. Prohibitionist groups have condemned the Rajasthan Government's move to facilitate establishment of 23 new liquor units in the State. "On the one hand the whole State is threatened with the prospects of a drought and scarcity of drinking water while on the other, the Government is busy promoting the liquor factories," the groups said here in a statement.

The signatories to the statement included nonagenarian Sarvodaya leader Siddhraj Dhadda; president of the Rajasthan Samagra Seva Sangh, Sawai Singh; president of the Nashabandhi Samiti, Ramballabh Agarwal; and Arya Samaj leader, Satyavrat Samvedi.

"The liquor plants would guzzle up whatever remains of the ground water in a water scarce State like Rajasthan in the aftermath of which the local people would be forced to leave their land," they noted.

"The State Government's concern over water is only an eyewash. Otherwise it would have thought about installing plants for purification of available ground water, instead of starting liquor units," the groups pointed out. One litre of liquor required at least 20 litres of water and 23 liquor units meant lakhs of litres of water, they said.

In the wake of bleak prospects of a normal monsoon this season the Government, they said, should close down even the existing distilleries and units making soft drinks so that the citizens would be left with water for their bare needs, they said.

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