Liquor
ban: Is it not a disregard and break-in in court orders?
Before
giving its judgment, the Supreme Court has perhaps not considered the reasons
behind deaths in road accidents which is said to be main aim to ban the sale of
liquor on the national and state highways.
A
total ban was put on the sale of liquor by the Supreme Court in its recent
judgment, within 500 metres of nation and state highways throughout the country
terming it that drunk driving was one of the major causes of road accidents in
the country.
In
fact, the Punjab government has found a way to reduce the effect of the Supreme
Court’s orders banning sale or serving of liquor within 500 metres of national
and state highways. The state government denotified 12 such highway stretches
that pass through cities and towns but for which bypasses were already built.
Due
to the ban, the state had apprehended a loss of Rs 1,300 as revenue this fiscal
for the excise and taxation department that governs liquor sale. And the denotification of the bypassed stretches
would offer some respite, though that would be quantified only later.
The
seven state highway stretches denotified by the public works department are in
the districts SAS Nagar, Pathankot, Moga, Hoshiarpur, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib,
and Nawanshahr.
However,
the notification says, “The government over the years constructed a number of
bypasses on state highways to decongest select cities. As a consequence, the
bypassed parts of these highways passing through the cities are no more
required to be state highways.”
However,
a look at A loo at the 2015 report on road accidents by the Ministry
of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), however, suggests otherwise. The
share of accidents caused due to the consumption of alcohol/drugs
constitutes a small percentage – 3.3% – of all road accidents (16,298 out of
5,01,423 accidents) and 4.6% of fatalities (6,755 out of 1,46,133 deaths). This
means that over 96% of road accidents were caused not by drunk drivers but by
sober people.
In
the eyes of Supreme Court it might be acting in public interest, as a guardian
of people’s right but its powers are free-for-all. Such outright overreach can prove problematic
for the entire system of governance in the country so far as generation of
excise revenues and large scale unemployed.
It looks that these concerns were considered secondary to public health
and safety.
Non-drinkers
say that why the action at the root level to close down the breweries are taken
and generate the revenues by setting up other production houses.
At
the same time, the decision of the Punjab Government to allow the sale of
liquor on the national highways looks to be a burglary in the orders of the
Supreme Court.
Added
here, recently the Punjab Cabinet has recently approved the amendment in the
Punjab Excise Amendment Bill 2017 - changing the definition of ‘sale of liquor’
- allowing the sale of liquor at the hotels, restaurant and clubs, within 500
kms of national highways. It looks to be
a backdoor entry to counter the court’s judgment by interpreting that the ban
was on the shops and not on the hotels, restaurants and clubs. It is not
understood as to whether this will be digestible to the court or not but the
motive behind the amendment in rules is clear as the sale of liquor is one of
the major source of income of the state.
It could be measured from the fact that around Rs.2600 crore revenue has
been generated by the government in the recent auction.
It’s
not the Punjab state only who is facing problem on the orders of Apex Court it
is for all the states. In certain
states, there is a practical problem like Himachal Pradesh where the orders of
the court cannot be implemented practically being hilly areas to open the
liquor vends at a distance of 500 metres.
Rather, the shops could only be closed. In the petition, a reference of
road accidents was indicated for banning the sale of liquor on the national
highways.
India
is number one so far as road accidents are concerned. In 2015, on an average, about 400 people die
every day in road accidents and it is on the increasing trend. Some are seriously injured and some become
permanently handicap in the accidents. The reasons behind the road accidents
are high speed driving, violation of traffic rules while overtaking,
availability of big patches on the highways, non-availability of lights on the
roads at certain appropriate places and
there are number of other problems. Driving after drinking is one of the major
reasons and this tendency is increasing.
Let
me also share that ArriveSafe – a leading NGO based at Chandigarh was one of
the petitioners in the case and with the recent government orders is not
impressed. Harman Sidhu after thorough
study of the bill, will decide future course of action and movement to the
court for amendment soon.
Frankly
speaking, the burglary in the court orders and interpretation suitable to the
states for not implementing looks to be a disregard to the court orders.
What
to be seen from the available statistics is that the focus needs to shift to
stricter road vigils and drunk driving and not liquor ban. At the same time, imagine what rules and
regulations of this kind could do to a country like India where road rage,
bribery and blatant disregard for traffic rules are the norm.
No
doubt some argue that bribery will not go away, no matter what is done but in
that case we need to switch over to new technology in this high-tech era, to
bypass the police department altogether in these efforts. The automated road camera system on the
national highways can be easily deployed on our roads and fine appears directly
in the offender’s phone or email without the need for any police intervention.
On
the suggestive side, instead of crushing businesses and industries that rely
heavily on the availability of alcohol, the need of the hour is the focus needs
to curb he misuse seen on our roads and to shift to stricter road vigils and
drunk driving, not liquor ban.
Only
the ‘will’ is required as the popular saying goes, ‘where there is will, there
is a way’ as the law enforcement with vigilance and accountability is only the
answer to any problem.
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