In UP and Uttarakhand, 114 people were killed by poisonous liquor and everything was normal, but certainly there was furore in the houses of the poor villagers who lost their relatives . If 114 people had died due to natural calamity, imagine the coverage they would have got from these 24 hours news channels, and surely the government would have done lot more, from rescue to NDRF teams, everything would have been done in a much larger scale. Imagine if 114 people had died in communal riots, then how big a crisis would have been for the governments of both the states. How many battalions of Rapid Action Force would have been installed. But since these 114 people have died because of poisonous alcohol, nobody cares.
Well, why this poisonous liquor is being made !, so that people die like this and become the source of inspiration for the drinkers.There is no sympathy in the society, for a person who die because of alcohol. After all, what’s the fault of a person who is forced to drink raw instead of Hundred Piper, and who is not compelled, every year, millions of people are becoming cancer victims due to adulterated food. The big question is, manufacturers of cigarettes and gutkha, manufacture it only, so that people become victims of cancer.
If the government can show such strictness towards polythene, so why not the government bans gutkha and liquor. Governments of our double standard society, also unknowingly become victims of double standards. Who is involved in the poisonous liquor business, everyone knows, from the district administration to the politician, everyone seems to be affliated with this business because of their own local compulsions.
The use of polythene in the common man’s life, the use of cigarettes and gutkha and the use of adulterated food is different from the use of poisonous liquor, but as sympathy can be given to the persons who suffer from cancer using these adulterated food, society must not neglect the person, consuming raw liquor ,then only governments will act swiftly to curb the poisonous liquor traders. If any death is not normal, then if not the society, it should be the duty of the government to treat them at par with others. Unusual death whether in riots, natural calamity or by consuming raw liquor, each should be treated at par.
According to official figures presented in the UP Assembly, 53 people died due to toxic liquor in 2009, in the year 2010, the poisonous poisonous liquor swallowed 82 lives. In the same way in 2011, 13 people died, so in 2012, a similar number of people died. In 2013, 52 people died after consuming poisonous liquor and five in 2014. Then in 2015, 59 died of poisonous alcohol and 41 died in 2016, while last year in 2017, 18 people died from poisonous liquor.
Rashmi Asthana