Uma Bharti urges Nadda to bring liquor ban in BJP-ruled states

It is surprisingthat for the greed of paltry revenue collection and due to theliquor mafias pressure, drinking isnt banned, she said.It looks like that the state machinery serves liquorto the people.

Former Union minister Uma Bhartion Thursday urged BJP chief J P Nadda to enforce a completeban on liquor in the states ruled by the saffron party.

She also said that due to the ''greed'' for revenue andpressure by liquor mafia, drinking is not being banned.

The senior BJP leader expressed her opinion in aseries of tweets in Hindi that come in the wake of death ofseveral people due to consumption of spurious alcohol inMadhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

''Through this tweet, I publicly appeal to my nationalpresident @JPNadda Ji to chart out a plan for a completeliquor ban in the BJP-ruled states,'' she said.

''There is a pressure on political parties to winelections. But BJP's victory in Bihar Assembly polls manifeststhat women voted for Nitish Kumar Ji en masse due to theliquor ban in force in that state,'' one of her tweets read.

''Alcohol ban is not a loss-making deal. Revenue lossescan be made up through other means. However, rapes, murders,accidents and the cases of physical molesting of the minorgirls under the influence of liquor are horrendous and blot onthe society,'' she wrote.

''Thousands of crores of rupees are spent onmaintenance of law and order. To strike a balance in thesociety, ban on drinking is an important step and for this adebate can be initiated,'' she said.

''A large number of people died due to liquorconsumption in UP and MP recently. The reason behind the fatalroad accidents is that drivers are drunk. It is surprisingthat for the greed of paltry revenue collection and due to theliquor mafias' pressure, drinking isn't banned,'' she said.

''It looks like that the state machinery serves liquorto the people. It is like a mother who is responsible forfeeding and protecting her child, giving poison to the baby.

Opening of the liquor shops by the state is similar to that,''she said.

Advocating complete prohibition, the former MadhyaPradesh chief minister tweeted, ''During the coronavirus-induced lockdown a sort of ban on drinking prevailed. And thismade it clear that people had either died of COVID-19 or otherreasons. No one has died of drinking liquor then.'' In what appears to be a taunt to Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bharti said, ''Madhya Pradeshgovernment has not taken any decision on opening more liquoroutlets yet. This statement by @ChouhanShivraj ji iscommendable.'' Over 20 people died in a hooch tragedy in Morenadistrict of MP earlier this month.

Spurious liquor had also claimed the lives of morethan a dozen people in Ujjain in October last year.