Anna Hazare says alcohol should be banned in Maharashtra

Noted social worker and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare on Sunday said that liquor should be banned in all the districts of Maharashtra, and the entire state should be declared liquor-free.

With Hazare being the first signatory to the demand to declare Ahmednagar as a no-liquor district, the Ahmednagar District Anti-Liquor Movement was launched on Sunday. The campaign would collect signatures from five lakh citizens in Ahmednagar in support of its memorandum.

The memorandum says many families are destroyed by the addiction to liquor, and the young generation is falling prey to it. The memorandum bolsters its demand by saying that since Ahmednagar was a land of spiritual gurus and saints, liquor ban should be imposed in the district to honour their memory.

Hazare, after signing the memorandum as the first signatory, said that he was happy to support this movement. He said he was confident that the state government would soon take a decision to make the whole state liquor-free. He also said that it was the women who bore the brunt of difficulties caused by addiction to liquor.