The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : KCBC stir against State liquor policy

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Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

KCBC stir against State liquor policy

Staff Reporter

To stage fast in Kochi tomorrow

Ban on sanction of additional liquor shops sought
Street-corner meetings, dharnas, planned

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) Temperance Commission will organise a fast in Kochi on Wednesday as the first step in its agitation against the State government’s liquor policy for the excise year beginning April.

“We will make the government lose its sleep if it continues with its anti-people liquor policy,” Thiruvananthapuram Archbishop Susaipakiam M. warned at a press conference called here on Monday to announce the fast.

He said the Left Democratic Front government had reopened 1,610 of the 2,000-odd toddy shops closed down by the A.K. Antony government. Toddy tapped in the State was sufficient for supply in only half the existing shops. It was public knowledge that spirit smuggled in lorries was mixed with toddy and distributed to make up for the shortfall.

He said the liquor policy contained provisions for revising the cut-off distance from identified institutions for sanctioning toddy shops. “The new policy may reduce the cut-off distance to 200 metres. We suspect that certain multinational companies are behind this move. These companies are eyeing the women and child populations of India who do not drink liquor. If they also can be made to drink, huge profits can be made,” the Archbishop said. All these, in effect, would mean that anybody could open a bar anywhere in the State.

Over the past decade, the council, he said, has, time and again, spoken to various governments about the need for a liquor ban and for spreading awareness against the consumption of alcohol, but in vain. Political parties, irrespective of which political front they belong to, have only paid lip-service to all these because they get hefty contributions from liquor barons, the Archbishop said.

The council demands reinstatement of the revoked sections in the Panchayati Raj-Nagarpalika Acts dealing with prohibition. Each panchayat should be given the right to decide if it needs a toddy shop within its limits.

The fast on February 6 will demand a ban on the sanction of additional liquor shops and inclusion of awareness programmes against liquor and narcotic substances in school curricula. The council will organise street-corner meetings, dharnas and awareness campaigns in the State.

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