27 October 2010
By T Ramavarman
Kochi Kerala, India
The Kerala government has announced that it will consider the suggestion made by a family court at Kottarakkara in Kollam district that a portion of the revenue the state is earning from liquor sale be allocated to support the families affected by alcohol consumption of its members.
"We can consider allocating some money for this in the next budget," finance minister Thomas Isaac told the Times of India.
Family court judge Cherian Kuriakkose had made the suggestion while disposing of a petition filed by a woman, Sathi, claiming maintenance from her husband for herself and two children.
Sathi said she and her two children were living at the mercy of her relatives as her husband was an alcohol addict, and had sent them out of his house. The judge ordered the husband to pay Rs 5,000 as maintenance to his wife and children. In his order, the judge said one out of three cases filed in family courts in the recent past "depicted the sad plight of the families affected in a devastating way, by the villain – alcohol".
On the other side, the state–owned Beverages Corporation (Bevco) records evergrowing sale revenue. For instance, the corporation made a revenue of Rs 21.3 crore on the new year eve in 2007. Kerala is now known as the "state having the highest per capita alcohol consumption in the country with 8.5 litres per person," the judge said.
He said Article 47 of the Constitution stated that it was the duty of the state at least to reduce the consumption of liquor... gradually leading to prohibition. But Kerala was becoming richer and the citizens were becoming poorer because of alcohol sale and consumption.
The judge said the state was providing compensation to those killed in liquor tragedies. Then why should it discriminate the living victims of alcoholism, he asked.
He suggested the state must provide adequate maintenance to the victims of alcohol–related poverty, by diverting a reasonable share of the profits made by Bevco.
Noted jurist and former Supreme Court judge V R Krishna Iyer said, "I condemn the state for its profligate and ruinous policy of running a government on liquor revenue. It is terrorism on the part of the state to live on alcohol. I wonder why the Central government does not take action against the state. It must give a directive to the state to obey Article 47. If the state fails to implement this... the state will become unconstitutional."
Whether the government will implement the judge’s suggestion or not is to be seen as several proposals including the one to start de–addiction centres in taluk hospitals have not yet made much headway.
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