Former Haryana home minister and national general secretary of the Samajwadi Janta Party Sampat Singh has demanded that prohibition should be immediately withdrawn from the state. He told a press conference here on Thursday that if the prohibition law was not immediately scrapped in the state, it would lead to total anarchy in view of the alarming rise of the liquor mafia in the state. The liquor mafia is virtually ruling the state now.
The former minister said the liquor mafia has already acquired sophisticated arms because of the easy availability of money and the protection provided by the ruling party. He alleged that the liquor mafia, the politicians in power and the state police had formed a nexus. The SJP leader pointed out that the law and order situation had worsened during the past one year. From May 1996 to June 1997, there were 350 cases of rape, 650 murders and nearly 500 kidnappings in the state.
Singh said the village youth is engaged in liquor smuggling and acquiring illicit arms, which he described as a very disturbing as well as dangerous trend.
The SJP expressed the view that prohibition as a social movement has miserably failed in Haryana. He criticised state Chief Minister Bansi Lal for having developed a kind of obsession with prohibition. The former minister attacked the Chief Minister for ignoring burning economic issues of the state like the completion of the Sutlej Yamuna Canal, the Agra canal and the abolition of octroi. Singh also pointed out that both the power and the water situation in the state had become dismal. Rural Haryana is virtually without electricity and thousands of villages are not getting even safe drinking water.
The SJP leader also lambasted the Haryana Vikas Party - Bhartiya Janta Party government for doing precious little on the real issue of unemployment in the state during the past one year.
He also mentioned that Haryana had lost Rs 600 crore in one year because of prohibition. He lamented that while liquor was still freely available in Haryana, though at a higher price, the liquor revenue was going to the neighbouring states like Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan.
