The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Women vow to close belt shops

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 25, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Women vow to close belt shops

Staff Reporter

KOLLIPARA (GUNTUR): The 63-km padayatra began by Lok Satta National convener Jaya Prakash Narayan from Pedagottipadu village in Guntur district continued on the second day reaching some of the eastern-most villages of the district, where women vowed to close all belt shops.

“We do not credit for 100 grams of redgram pulses for nourishing our family, but our husbands get Rs.600 worth of credit for alcohol, which puts our creditworthiness to great stress,” said Uppunoothala Mastannama on the outskirts of Kollipara village. When handful of people walking with Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan reached the village, there was a large gathering of women to receive the team walking 63 km to Guntur to highlight the evils of alcoholism and need for closing down belt shops.

Five shops in a small village with a population of 5,000 people is able to do a business of Rs.15 lakh which shows how the Government is fleecing the poor of their hard earned money, said the Lok Satta leader addressing people there. “Our aim is to cleanse politics and it can be done only from liquor as this was consuming maximum money of the people and leaving an impact on socio-economic status of the villagers,” he pointed out.

Water problem

The village faced severe drinking water problem during summer, but was having good resources for liquor, he observed. This trend was visible in a majority of villages in the State, he said.

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