Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi, May 13: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today expressed concern over massive drug and alcohol abuse in the country which has resulted into at least six crore affected people requiring treatment. The LGP said rising menace is largely because of faulty excise policy of the central and state governments putting huge burden on medical and health services in the country.
The spokesman of the party said here on Monday that apart from addiction to alcohol, the increasing problem of abuse of opium, cannabis (bhang, charas, ganja) and other sedative have registered sharp jump pushing the younger generation to disaster in the country. The spokesman said the per capita alcohol consumption in India increased two folds between 2005 and 2016 as Indians consumed 2.4 liters alcohol in 2005 which increased to 4.3 liters in 2010 and scaled up to 5.7 liters in 2016. The spokesman said a study conducted by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) has underlined that the addiction plague has steadily swallowed India causing alarm while turning millions of productive Indians into crippling liability on the nation’s socio-economic infrastructure. The spokesman said the governments both at the centre and states have failed to control the crisis because of massive corruption and wrong excise policy with the nexus between politicians, criminals, Mafiosi in the business. The spokesman said in terms of numbers UP has the highest number of alcohol users. Similarly UP, Punjab, Sikkim, Chattisgarh and Delhi accounted for the maximum cannabis abusers in the country, the spokesman added.
The spokesman said the situation has assumed serious dimension with government machinery failing to control it. The spokesman said despite stringent legal provisions there is no improvement in the situation as there are regular reports from various parts of the state about hooch related deaths also. The spokesman said since the excise department is the controlling authority of distribution and sale of liquor in the state, it is its sole responsibility to effectively curb smuggling and manufacturing of illicit liquor but the department known for rampant corruption has nexus with people involved in illegal business. The LGP has thus demanded crackdown on the trade with stringent action against officers and others to protect the lives of the poor people.
