Kethosituo Mepfhüo
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]rite-ups that support lifting of prohibition are sure to invite criticism, even reprimand from church leaders, because as Christians, such write-ups may even be considered a rebellion. But is it not time a spade is called a spade?
25 years on and the scenario – despite the existence of prohibition act, liquor joints exist in all nooks and corners and without prohibition, they will surely be there wherever they are. But what difference does that make?
Will it not be better if more focus is given to educating people about the ill-effects of alcoholism rather than debating on this trivial issue of lifting or not lifting while drinkers rot away and sellers build their fortune (that too with spurious stuff). Even better to save our red faces from the ‘dry state’ tag and let govt. do the licensing so that adulterated liquor can also be checked like any other foodstuff. Just an instance – witnessed this during a few day’s visit to Sikkim – liquor shops are found in abundance but not a single drunkard was encountered (Don’t know if it is abuzz with drunkards at all other times).
If statistics furnished by the Excise Department or the occasional destruction of seized consignments is any consolation, what if ten little cases of seizure reported in the media be not even half as good as one big truck load that evades arrest and both the transporter and police benefit from it?The state govt. may be contemplating on lifting the prohibition act because calling Nagaland a dry state has become a mockery and it is not within the capacity of its machinery to enforce this act as there are too many loopholes. Therefore at this point of time, NBCC blaming the govt. for failure to implement total prohibition while insisting to continue with the act without acting does not seem to solve anything. Simply seizing a few consignments of IMFL and destroying it in public will not beat the rate at which it is being transported and sold because liquor joints running out of stock has never been heard of and moreover, we cannot turn our depleting land into a burial ground for IMFL.
