Editor,
Alcohol destroys families and leads to violence. The tragedy last week in Gujarat’s Botad district, involving spurious liquor, which claimed more than 40 lives, adds to the long list of deaths from unregulated, unsafe alcohol.
Liquor consumption tragedies cannot be attributed to hooch alone. Clamping down on liquor production and sale, or prohibition, is not the solution. Ensuring that all alcohol sales happen under safety regulation, coupled with measures that would limit excess and underage consumption, must be the way forward.
The way to minimise liquor-related tragedies is not by prohibiting its consumption, as in Gujarat and Bihar, but by bringing alcohol consumption under the regulatory radar with clear parameters on its sale and consumption.
This must be supported by strict enforcement of related laws, such as stepping up action against drunk driving.
Jubel D’Cruz,
Mumbai