70% NRIs  Say: Total- Prohibition or ban on alcohol won't work in hard drinking India

Los Angeles, May 25, 2016
NRIpress.club/Dr. R.Reddy/Gary Singh

On April 05, 2016, Bihar's CM, Nitish Kumar has banned sale of liquor in the Bihar State from today making it the fourth state in the country after Gujarat, Nagaland. Kerala and Mizoram.

Bihar's CM, Nitish Kumar said,“I feel this is the right time for social change in Bihar and the people will now use the money invested in liquor to add nutrition to their plates, avoid disease and economic ruination."The decision on the ban was also a fulfillment of Kumar’s election promises that he made in 2015. In 1977, CM Karpoori Thakur had  proposed a liquor ban, however, his government had failed to implement it effectively.

The Economic Times calls banning booze Nitish Kumar’s first blunder, the story is informed by similar experiments which lost fizz in India’s north east region.

India is the world's largest whiskey market by volume. More than 19 million Indians reach the legal drinking age each year and 9 in 10 Indians knock back whisky, rum, vodka and  not beer and wine.

Keralites and Andhrites kept their alcohol flag flying high with heavy alcohol consumption per annum, followed by other states such as Maharashtra and Punjab. In Kerala, However, sale of alcohol will continue to be permitted in fourteen 5-star hotels. 

Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Manipur have previously enforced, but later repealed prohibition:
Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Manipur are all states that have experimented with partial or complete ban on liquor. But change in governments as well as a negative feedback from the public have forced political parties to reverse the decision. Widespread smuggling and sale of illicit liquor have also been the reasons for such bans to collapse.

The several media reports say the ban has not been a ‘success’ and that numerous illegal bars and shops continue to operate in the states. Smuggling of alcohol from neighbouring  States has also been reported.

Gujarat’s hooch mafia is flourishing and it’s said to be so easily available that you can get bottles delivered at your doorstep. Illicit liquor widely prevalent in the these States.

The liquor revenues ( 1/5 or 1/6  of the state’s revenue) are not easy to be ignored but they did:

• Kerala faces an estimated loss of more than Rs.7,000 crore per year
• Gujarat loses an estimated Rs 2,500-3,000 crore in revenue per year.
• Bihar is set to lose more than Rs.4,000 crore annually

"The politicians must think about local real killers- local tobacco, civil wars, cast system, Corruption and to show your ability to create  jobs," said NRI Ashok Gupta, an engineer from Bihar. "These kind of dictatorship decisions and orders does not acceptable in our society."

 Mr. Gupta further said:  "One person's "right" is not another's because people prioritize different values: equity versus excellence, efficiency versus voice and participation, security versus social justice, short-term versus long-term gains."
The longing for a leader who knows what is in her people's best interests, who rules with care and guides the nation on a wise path.

In political history, philosophers moved from a preference for such benevolent dictators to the ugly realities of democracy when they switched the question from "who could best rule?" to "what system prevents the worst rule?"
Corruption, vast inequality and failure to deliver basic goods and services are real problems with democracies in developed and developing nations. These ills are dangerous, leading to anger, stagnation and political violence.

NRI Arun Tiwari, IT Professor from LA said:

• 90% NRIs always like to help India but these politicians never think about the future of India.
• They just need to build the political will to enact the policies that will increase economic security, expand opportunities, Expansions of public health insurance, new civil rights protections and grow the middle class.
• NRIs are watching each politician's action, their dirty tricks and like to help honest politicians who like to bring changes in their States

NRI Dr. Sam Bhandari  from Toronto told NRIpress.club: "Partisan lines that once fell along regional States can increasingly be found at the county level. What does that mean for the future of the India?.

• Starting from 1947 Partition of India Pakistan, they always promoted cast system, reservation seats in schools and jobs, division in Hindu, Muslim, Christians and Sikhs, dowry systems and  split spouses.
  THIS IS VERY CLEAR THAT  Prohibition or ban on alcohol tool was used to split husbands and wives to get votes from women. Next election, new party will come and abolish this Prohibition or ban Law.
• The politicians must first think to create jobs, get investment from entrepreneurs and concentration on education.

Interestingly, when they come in foreign countries to get investment from NRIs or private companies, they always respect NRIs suggestions and ideas but never implement. Now social media  made awareness thet they always try to get the votes from people and like to play dirty games. They never understand that people are getting smarter and smarter everyday through media. THIS IS THE REASON, CANDIAN GOVT. BAN ON POLITCIANS FOR COMPAIGING IN CANADA.
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After Bihar liquor ban, alcohol sellers flourish on India-Nepal border

Posted By: NRIReporter on: April 10, 2016:

Kathmandu, April 10, 2016: The complete ban on alcohol in India’s Bihar state seems to have come as a boon for small traders in Nepal who sell low-quality alcohol. Reports here say there has been a sudden rise in small huts along the India-Nepal border to target alcohol customers from Bihar.

Authorities from India’s border districts have sought help and cooperation from their Nepali counterparts to check the possible smuggling of alcohol and increase in surveillance along the border.
Bihar imposed a complete ban on sale of alcohol from April 1.

At a recent meeting in Forbesganj in Bihar, Indian authorities sought help from their Nepali counterparts to curb the movement of people seeking alcohol from Nepal.

Toyam Rai, chief district officer of Sunsari district who led the Nepali team, said that due to the open international border, there was high chance of smuggling of alcohol from Nepal to India, and so the Indian authorities asked Nepal to cooperate in preventing the smuggling.

Himanshu Sharma, district magistrate of Araria in Bihar, local police chiefs and others also participated as part of the Indian side in the meeting.
Reports said mostly people from the working class come to the Nepali side to buy alcohol. But when there is a holiday, businessmen and youth also cross the border.

Local hoteliers say there has been a 2-3 fold rise in sale of alcohol in the past one week, since the ban in Bihar.
Nepali traders have now increased the prices of local alcohol, but reports said the quality was quite poor due to the sudden rise in demand.

“With the ban on alcohol in Bihar, the Indian authorities have asked us to curb the smuggling of alcohol from Nepal. They are also concerned that after the ban, criminals may sneak into Nepal that will further invite security complications,” said Sunsari Superintendent of Police Sandip Bhandari.

“With this new unfolding situation, we may face new security threats along the border,” said Rai. “We have assured the Indian side about the security arrangements on the border.”.....IANS
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Alcohol kills an Indian every 96 minutes
By Devanik Saha 

As the debate over an alcohol bans grows across India, 15 people die every day - or one every 96 minutes - from the effects of drinking alcohol, reveals an IndiaSpend analysis of 2013 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, the latest available.

The per capita consumption of alcohol in India increased 38 percent, from 1.6 litres in 2003-05 to 2.2 litres in 2010-12, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, which also revealed that more than 11 percent of Indians were binge drinkers, against the global average of 16 percent.

The data explain the wide political support for crackdowns on alcohol, although experts point out that alcohol is a health problem - not a moral one.

In Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa shut down 500 liquor stores on May 23, the first day of her fourth term as chief minister. In April, Bihar imposed prohibition - a ban on the sale, production and consumption of alcohol. In August 2014, Kerala restricted the sale of liquor to five-star hotels.

Pre-poll surveys in Kerala and Tamil Nadu found wide support for prohibition, 47 percent of men and women in Kerala and 52 percent in Tamil Nadu, the Indian Express reported. The leading reason for the ban, respondents said, was alcohol-fuelled domestic violence.

Before the latest crackdowns on alcohol, Gujarat and Nagaland were the only Indian states with prohibition.

Maharashtra tops alcohol-related deaths
Maharashtra reported the most alcohol-related deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, according to the NCRB data, with experts saying high rates of alcoholism correlate with high crime rates.

"Major crimes and accidents are fuelled by alcohol, which also leads to sexual harassment of women and robberies," S. Raju, of Tamil Nadu’s Makkal Adhikaram (People’s Power) told the BBC. “Alcohol abuse is also the reason why Tamil Nadu has the largest number of widows under 30 years of age.”

A quarter of all hospital admissions and 69 percent of all crimes in Kerala are due in part to intoxication, according to the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre, an NGO, quoted in The Economist.

Five people died every day in 2014 after drinking spurious liquor

In 2015, consumption of illegally brewed liquor claimed more than 100 lives in Malwani, Mumbai, triggering widespread outrage. As many as 1,699 people died in 2014 after consuming spurious/illicit liquor, an increase of 339 percent from 387 in 2013.

However, prohibition may not reduce addiction and deaths, Vikram Patel, a leading public health expert with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, argued in an Indian Express column.

“Prohibition of substances which give pleasure to people does not work,” he wrote. “Addiction is a health problem, not a moral one, and there are many proven strategies which can reduce its burden. The desire to address the serious social problems caused by a minority of those who consume alcohol by prohibition is a travesty of the experience of history and public health science. Prohibition is rejected by most public health scientists who know this field; even the World Health Organisation does not recommend it.”

Notes:
The data for deaths due to alcohol influence nationally as well as state-wise has been stopped since 2014 and is included in sudden deaths overall; therefore, we have taken the 2013 figures and analysed accordingly.

There is a possibility of more deaths due to alcohol influence under the heart attacks/epilepsy category; however, it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of deaths, and hence, we have just used the figures under “influence of alcohol”.

(25.05.2016 - In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public interest journalism platform. Devanik Saha is a Delhi-based freelance journalist.