more-in The government should not look at the sale of liquor merely as a source of revenue but also think of the countless families that are being ruined due to addition to alcohol, Chaitanya Sravanthi president Shirin Rahman has said. “We have made several representations to all the authorities concerned, including Chief Minister N. Chandra Babu Naidu, seeking an early decision to regulate the production, sale, distribution and consumption of alcohol in the State. But, to no avail,” Ms. Rahman told the media here on Sunday. She said that the NGO had approached the Supreme Court against the liquor menace but the petition was dismissed for want of jurisdiction. “We are planning to move the Hyderabad High Court for necessary action, if the State government does not act on our representation,” she said. Advocate Umesh Chandra PVG said the right to healthy life falls under the ambit of ‘Right to Life’ guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, and the State was obliged under the Directive Principles of State Policy to abolish intoxicating drugs, including liquor, under Article 47 of the Constitution. “Gujarat, Bihar and other States have abolished liquor. We are not urging the government to abolish it outright but only to regulate it in phases,” he said. Representation In the representation, the NGO has urged the government to ensure, in a span of six years, that there is only one liquor shop for 1 lakh population, install e-surveillance cameras near the outlets to monitor the activities in the vicinity, to ensure closure of permit rooms which have become breeding grounds for law and order problems and to earmark 5% of excise revenue for creating awareness about ill-effects of liquor consumption.

Stay updated with all the Latest Visakhapatnam headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.