Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Moha flowers - not for liquor, but for nutrition : An appeal

To,
Hon. Shri. Ashok Chavan,
Chief Minister,
Maharashtra state.

Maharashtra state is known for taking progressive steps in various fields. In such state, efforts for some wrong and misleading steps for liquor policy are being observed through declarations by some ministers. We are writing this letter to alert you regarding this and expect you to such wrong decisions at appropriate time.

A liquor factory from moha flowers is planned in Gadchiroli district which is liquor-free as a result of people's movement and government's approval to that movement. The ministers of Maharashtra have been saying this again and again and this plan is coming as proposal in front of the Maharashtra cabinet to decide on it.

We feel this plan is a severe mistake due to the following reasons:

1. The Gadchiroli district is declared anti-liqour as a result of the anti liquor movement of the district residents along with demand of 600 villages and 336 organizations, All licenses of consuming and selling liqours are banned in Gadchiroli. Consuming and selling alcohol is an crime here. Considering this, to open an liquor factory in this district is a funny paradox and it will be moral defeat of the government and the Congress party.

2. If the factory is opened here, the production will demand market and will be available by legal/illegal means in the district. It will cause increase in the pains and exploitation of already poor and ignorant tribal residents.

3. Because of this reason, the 'Liquor policy for the tribal people' of the Central government made by the efforts of late Smt. Indira Gandhi, directs that no liquor should be produced and/or sold in the tribal areas. Maharashtra government has adopted this policy in 1977 when Late Shri. Shankarrao Chavan was the chief minister. The decision to start current liquor factory will be a contradiction to the decision enforced by this policy.

4. Due to this factory, the moha flower, a traditional nutrition for the tribals will be snatched from them and they will be served with liquor instead. Liquor instead of nutrition is an terrible plan.

5. The only beneficiaries of the factory will be a few leaders and contractors. The tribal community in general will bear a great loss.

6. This plan or decision will be opposed largely by ladies, microcredit-groups and youth.

7. Even the naxalites might oppose this proposed factory. The government will provide a cause for them.

We are worried and restless because of this and request the government the following :

1. The government should take immediate actions to cancel the proposed moha flower liquor factory.

2. Instead of moha flower liquor, the government should provide nutritional items made from glucose/fructose of moha flower.

3. To get rid of many bad customs, the government is already running many schemes. The government should take initiative for "Addiction-free village/town" scheme with the help of people.

Yours,

3 comments:

  1. Request you to provide a copy of the said "Liquor policy for the tribal people" of the Central Government.

    This is a non-adversarial request. Having such relevant sources at hand will be a big support to getting the issue resolved.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sure, please give me some time! I have started collecting references regarding the same!

    ReplyDelete
  3. i second the request made by Parijat. i would also like to study the policy document, and any other relevant official doucments in this regard......Thank you.........krishna

    ReplyDelete