Although alcohol will ‘burn your body and soul,’ there is not much the government can do about it, according to chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda. At a roundtable conference on prohibition, organised by the Karnataka State Temperance Board (KSTB), which was attended by various religious heads in the state, the chief minister said: “Although there is a call to ban alcohol, especially in villages, prohibition only seems to make matters worse, especially considering that once banned, the sale of alcohol will only be made continue in the black market,” he said.
He added that in order to get adequate results in combating alcoholism, parallel steps must be taken in creating awareness among the people about the ill-effects of alcohol.
“Instead of asking us to ‘prohibit’, people should stop consuming alcohol. If this is done, whether or not the government does anything will not matter anymore,” he said.
Gowda also suggested that religious heads begin talking about it to their devotees, considering that their words will be held in high regard.
Taking note of what Gowda had said, religious leaders are considering taking the problem of alcoholism to their devotees; they continue to believe that the government should have a much more proactive role to play.
The seers believe that when the sale of alcohol itself is stopped, there is nothing else that people can do, but stop drinking.
Moreover, they are of the opinion that the expenditure to the government from various problems due to alcoholism is much more than the profit they make.
They also expressed their displeasure that although the government makes over 10,000 crore from the sale of alcohol, only about `1 crore is given to the KSTB, which makes their work much harder.According to HP Dinesh, secretary of the KSTB, the swamijis will be passing a resolution on Thursday about the future course of action.
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