The Agriculture Produce and Marketing Yard (APMC) in Raichur hosted a rally against alcoholism on Sunday. Over 8,000 people, a majority of them women, participated in the event organised by 27 organisations demanding that the State government prohibit or ban liquor sales and save the downtrodden communities from ruin. Activist and convenor of Nasha Mukta Bharat Andolan Medha Patkar, who inaugurated the rally by breaking a bottle of liquor and then watering a plant, appealed to women to come together and continue the struggle until Chief Minister Siddaramaiah declared Karnataka free from alcohol by imposing ban on liquor sales.
“The Congress government in Karnataka, which will face Assembly elections shortly, has time to take a decision to ban liquor sales and still receive votes, as thousands of families in the State are suffering from the ill-effects of alcoholism,” she said. Women are losing their hard earned money, self-respect and dignity in society owing to the chronic alcoholism of their husbands, she said and urged the government to immediately ban liquor sales, if it was working in the interests of the people. While appreciating Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar, Ms. Patkar appealed to Prime Minster Narendra Modi to follow suit in banning liquor sales across the country. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Modi banned currency instead of liquor that is harming society,” she said.
Urging women to give “suitable reply” to their husbands against harassment, Taralabalu Jagadguru Shivamurthy Shivacharya Swami of Siriege, Chitradurga, said that women should react strongly if they were subjected to any kind of harassment by their husband under the influence of alcohol.
Gangambika Akka, Basava Seva Pratishtana, Bidar, and Sister Teena, activist, spoke.
Lal Hussain Kandagal, progressive thinker, B.R. Patil, MLA from Aland, Chamarasa Malipatil, Abhay Kumar, Kumar Samatala, Syed Haijulla and others were present.
