-
-
Feb192008
‘Dry Days’ in God’s Own Country
(This post is not to debate on the health issues as a result of alcohol consumption but yes, alcohol consumption is injurious to your health.)
A long queue, thick crowd and a traffic block. Yes that’s a state owned liquor shop. Wish I had a photograph to prove it.On my visit to my home town in Kerala during Christmas I found this sight pretty amusing. Not that I am seeing it for the first time, but because of the anguish in the eyes of the people waiting in the queue.
Ever since AK Antony (now Defence Minister) banned Arrack in 1996 and closed down all private owned liquor shops in the state, the ‘dry days’ for the people of Kerala had begun. At one end the move was to protect the interest of the families whose lives were ruined due to domestic violence. Looking at the other end of the story, we find more illegal arrack being smuggled into the state (or manufactured within the state) and heavy pricing on alcohol.
The burden is on the lower middle class or the laborers who drink, has to shell out twice as what they had to earlier. Thanks to the 100% tax on alcohol. But did the consumption come down? No. Lesson learned? Increasing the prices do not reduce the consumption.
Now if it’s any festival, you find people waiting in long queues to get themselves a bottle. Why can’t the government (any one of them, during their term) just give away with the regulations? Reason? Revenue. (Tax collected through the liquor sales was Rs. 15 billion in 2006; it is Rs.18 billion in 2007)
All government controlled liquor shops and bars are closed on 1st of every month. Reason? That’s the government’s way to control its citizen from spending all his salary on alcohol. If he needs to get himself a drink he is at the mercy of a watchman at the nearest Bar. (Bars sell liquor with their back door policy on dry days at extra charge.) End result? He would shell out more money on a dry day.All the regulations in place, Kerala still tops as the most liquor consuming state in India. Liquor sales in the state have gone up from Rs.20 billion in 2006 to Rs.23.11 billion in 2007. Kerala has the highest per capita liquor consumption in the country.
I can’t find any reason why the government shouldn’t take away the regulations. Well it’s not in interest of public health or welfare of families that the regulations are in place (then the government should regulate cigarettes as well). While people in other states enjoy the benefits of buying liquor from supermarkets, Kerala is still far behind, with government controlled liquor shops. The regulations if any should be uniform in all the states.While how consumption can be controlled is a different story all together, the government (s) have learned their lessons that these regulations just won’t help in reducing the number of consumers.
The views expressed in this post are those of the writer and are not necessarily endorsed by Mutiny.in
Subscribe
Submit Link
2S
001
12:19 am
- scary thought, if that’s the case, then what will?
chacko
002
12:24 am
@2S, Liver failure is the only way to stop
xylene
003
1:07 pm
@2S
well may be public awareness.
@chacko
yeah. for a person to quit, he has to decide on it. I dont think any regualtions would help.
But the government is making hell lot of money out of this.
Kima
004
2:32 pm
One mistake Governments repeat time and again through the passage of time is, be it the Prohibition days in America between 1920s and 1930s, or the current Total Prohibition in Mizoram, if they are going to declare a Prohibition, they must first have efficient Law enforcement officers to take care of the bootleggers. Because if they can’t keep a check on illegal arrack or smuggled liquor, there is no point in having a prohibition.
Mizoram is a Total Prohibition Area, and any Mizo is an expert on this subject. Lolz. Visit any Mizo community site and the hottest debate/discussion over there would be about Prohibition
But I just have a question, not related to Prohibition. I have been all over India, drinking merrily all the way
And only at TWO states did I have to stand in a queue to buy booze. Kolkata (WB) and Pala, Kottayam and Cochin (Kerala). Does this have anything to do with Communism (CPI etc) ? Because as you have mentioned, there is no private ownership of bars in Kerala. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the wineshops in Tamilnadu are also owned by the Government, and I never had to stand in a queue anywhere as you could find a wineshop almost in every locality.
xylene
005
5:13 pm
@Kima,
To my knowledge, there are both private and stateowned wineshops in Tamilnadu.
No, nothing to do with communism, just that the goverments in their terms failed to remove the prohibitions and its not helping in anyway at all.
Yes you got to stand in a q in Kottayam as there is only 3 shops in town.
chacko
006
5:24 pm
They say in Kottayam there are only two people who are sober by 7pm. Gandhi and PT Chacko - both are statues
xylene
007
6:14 pm
@chacko.
hahaha. yeah. lol.
| Balu |
008
12:40 pm
In economic tersm there exists a perfectly inelestic demand for liquor in Kerala! LOL … I admired Antony for implementing the deal (and even I thought it would work oops).. the funny part was, such rules are associated with communist ideology, (than with congress) govt owned liquor, clothing, automobile etc…
xylene
009
2:01 pm
Yeah thank god that clothing is not goverment owned, or else I would have to wait in a queue to get myself new clothing.
lol.
| Balu |
010
2:21 pm
Wudnt be so much of an issue.. most of the good stuff in Kerala (for guys) come from Taiwan and Bangalore.. and for girls (Tamil Nadu)…
Sheesh.. 100% consumer state!
xylene
011
3:29 pm
yeah 100%.. recently milk prices was hiked. reason? well kerala buys milk from karnataka and prices were hiked here recently.
Gets all its vegetables/rice from TN.