The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : A dangerous cocktail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 27, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

A dangerous cocktail

By K. Manikandan

CHENNAI, SEPT. 26. A little past 7 p.m., and still rush hour. Hordes of people are rushing back home. Many among them choose to stop at one of the government-owned wine shops in Chennai, before resuming their journey home.

Sadly, for most of the other road-users, several thousands of people hit the road after consuming alcohol. The ugliest sight in the city today is not the foul-smelling waterways or the dirty pavements, but the sight of groups of men drinking on the roadsides, pavements and in bus stops.

Alcohol has become a great leveller, for all the wrong reasons. Today, students, senior citizens, executives of multinational corporations and others rub shoulders in the open bars attached to the government-owned wine shops.

Soaring turnover

The sales turnover of the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (TASMAC), which has taken over the wholesale distribution of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor from the private sector in the entire State, has increased about 20 times in nearly as many years. In 1983-84, the figure was Rs. 139.41 crores, which touched a whopping Rs. 2,841 crores in 2000-01. The exchequer is only too happy, as the corporation generates a huge sum as revenue. In 2000-2001, it was Rs. 1,109 crores, a sum that must have gone up in two years.

Thus as cash flows in, the State Government agencies concerned are turning a blind eye to people drinking in the open, despite residents' complaints. The employees of a cloth store in the Nungambakkam area feel disgusted when they come for work every morning, for next door there is a TASMAC wine shop. The place is littered with disposable glasses, plastic sachets and refuse.

But what is more worrying than that is the hazards of drunken driving. Thousands of men drive back home after downing a few drinks in these wine shops. Drunken driving can be fatal for a motorist himself, as happened to a youth who drove a luxury car at a speed in excess of 100 km per hour on East Coast Road a few years ago, or to others, like it happened to Stephanie last weekend.

Activists' concern

Activists of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a voluntary organisation, say that a motorist under the influence of liquor can never do `controlled drinking.'

City police have no accurate statistics to prove the nexus between drunken driving and road accidents. But by even modest estimates, at least a third of the total accidents are due to driving under the influence of alcohol.

The AA volunteers say the alcohol in blood slows driver reflexes, blurs vision and impairs ability to distinguish colours. Citing studies made in the United States of America, AA members say that drunken driving like most other social problems defies simple solutions. They suggest that the moment driver is found guilty of drunken driving his/her licence should be automatically cancelled. This according to AA members, is the most effective measure to reduce drunken driving, a view strongly supported by members of the Automobile Association of Southern India and the Citizens for Safe Roads, voluntary organisations in Chennai.

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