The demand for total prohibition in Tamil Nadu is not a political issue but a health and developmental issue facing the State, according to Pattali Makkal Katchi leader Anbumani Ramadoss.
He was presiding over a demonstration organised PMK women’s wing volunteers amid pouring rain opposite the Collectorate here on Thursday.
Dr. Anbumani said that previously a person might start consuming liquor around the age of 30 while a boy as young as 12 years could be seen consuming liquor now. This trend would affect the next generation in a big manner. Thirty-two per cent of the men above the age of 15 in Tamil Nadu consumed liquor. Quoting a World Health Organisation survey report, he said that while 18 lakh persons died owing to liquor consumption in India, two lakh people died of it in Tamil Nadu. The State government should consider the above facts and reintroduce total prohibition immediately, he said.
Another disturbing consequence of liquor addiction was the high crime and accident rate in Tamil Nadu. The number of road accidents on account of drunk driving and the number of young women who were widowed because of the death of their husbands in accidents were high in Tamil Nadu. The number of suicides and the incidence of sexual violence against women were also high in the State. Liquor addiction has also resulted in the increasing crime rate in the State, as could be seen from the fact that 30,000 robberies and dacoities and 2,000 murders had taken place in Tamil Nadu in the last four years.
Dr. Anbumani alleged that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government cheated the people by providing freebies to them with the help of the Rs.26,000-crore revenue which it earned through sale of liquor. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government too did the same thing in the past, he said.
“If the PMK comes to power in 2016, the first signature the government would affix will be on the order to introduce total prohibition. The PMK alone can do it,” he said.
