PMK keeps up prohibition chant

Chennai:PMK founder Dr S. Ramadoss on Sunday urged the state government to hold a public referendum on prohibition and enforce it immediately. “There is nothing more sinful than allowing the sale of liquor fully knowing its ill effects. The government should hold a referendum on prohibition and enforce it immediately,” he said in a statement here.

Reacting to the prohibition & excise minister Natham R. Viswanathan recently stating in the Assembly that enforcing prohibition in the state might lead to distillation and sale of illicit arrack and consequently hooch deaths, the PMK chief said if the government had the will, it could eradicate illicit liquor.

Recalling the ban imposed by CM Jayalalithaa in 1991 on the sale of arrack and toddy, he said she had then made the local police inspector and the village administrative officer responsible for any brewing and sale of illicit liquor in their jurisdiction. “Similar orders may be issued now too and illicit liquor can be eradicated. By refusing to enforce prohibition citing illegal arrack, the minister has only insulted the CM and the police department,” Dr Ramadoss said.

He cited a recent World Health Organisation report to warn that those consuming liquor could be affected by any or more of the 200-odd ailments, including cancer, tuberculosis and pneumonia. The WHO report had noted that over 32.1 per cent of men and 10.60 per cent of women in India were addicted to liquor. To change this situation in the state, he said he had been campaigning for prohibition for many years but the government was citing various reasons to refuse that.