Spurious, Adulterated Local Drinks Served To Drinkers
Alcoholic drink is injurious to health. The illicit local brew is more injurious to health. Taking the advantage of the ban imposed in the free sale of alcoholic drinks,
some persons with evil motive to earn huge profit from this illegal trade have brought chemical added liquor yet untested to the state for sale here and there.
The bottles containing the red color drink do not carry any trademark and the content of the alcohol. It is said such spurious drinks are manufactured at Dimapur, some others say such drinks are brought from Khatkhati.
Now police have received reports of serving red color alcoholic drinks at drinking joints. When tested, these drinks contain high dose of ethyl. It is afraid what we hear in the big states of lowly income group people dying after drinking methyl added drinks will be seen in Manipur. Methyl is used for industrial purposes. Methyl is cheap; therefore manufacturers use methyl instead of ethyl.
The problem is that the hotel owners that serve such type of alcoholic drinks cannot be punished, for they are doing the business without any license from the license issuing authority.
It is time the Govt thinks of evolving a strategy for punishing the hotels that serve such type of highly spurious chemical added drinks. Ever since the state became a dry land these bootleggers are doing everything they can between heaven and earth to meet the demands of the drinkers who swarm the drinking joints at Khwai bazar.
It is said many mix the local drinks with tranquilizer drugs to quantify the material. How many bottles can bootleggers bring to Imphal to meet the demand of these of people who throng such drinking joints? It is also said some others mix the local drinks with locally available tobacco leaves.
The local drink thus quantified is made crystal clear like nectar by dropping some drops of liquidified alum. The consequence is well known. The death rate among the local drink takers is very high. The number of persons killed by local drinks far outnumbers persons killed by AIDS in Manipur. The danger of local drink is that one can get it for just Rs five.
The ban on sale of alcoholic drink and consumption if to be made effective should cover the local drinks also. Mere appeal against selling of spurious drinks does not help.
It is time for all to ponder whether the ban is giving the kind of good result the people of the state wanted. Make the ban effective or lift the ban.
It is really an obnoxious scene, the youths taking drinks brought in small plastic bags before grand feasts arranged here and there in the state. If the demand on local drink is reduced, the greedy traders will not resort to adulteration of local drinks with unknown drugs and tobacco leaves. The concerned authority is called to look into the matter.
(Courtesy: The Manipur Mail) |
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