Give a dog a bad name and then shot him down. This is precisely a section of the press seems to be doing in its attempt to demonise the verdict against liquor shops and alcohol serving establishments along National or State highways.

One section of the press screams that Goa’s case is “different” based on topography and hence Goa government must appeal against the Supreme Court verdict as ours is a tourist destination and liquor trade is a source of livelihood! Mother’s milk is for the crying baby. So in Goa the powerful liquor lobby, which is a source of revenue for political funding and supporting the section of print media by generous advertisements; are seen all over in this part of the print media, offering comments as if; the Supreme Court of India is a Kangaroo establishment: It is wrong to assume that SC has offered a knee jerk order.

All around and everywhere we see news, editorials, comments, suggestions indirectly or perhaps directly too, accusing the SC or the Goa government of not viewing or even presenting the Goan social, cultural and political scenario in the right perspective, thus placing the lives and livelihoods of over four hundred and fifty thousand Goans in economic jeopardy.

The  constant discourse, of placing lives and livelihoods of four hundred thousand Goans due to ban on mining by the Supreme Court in 2012, did manage to secure mining doles by the then Parrikar government. Even a section of the Goan press was up-in-arms against the mining ban imposed by the Supreme Court: arguing that Goa would soon find thousands of suicides by mining workers, truck operators from the mining sector, especially those owning, operating and leasing trawlers, barges, transhippers, let alone the labourers involved  in mining operations. Amusingly as rightly anticipated by the SC and the honest citizenry of Goa, there weren’t any loss of life, suicide or death due to hunger, out of the so- called four hundred and fifty thousand mining dependents, claimed then by the powerful mining lobby. Only poor farmers died of starvation and agriculture suffered.

The only turmoil witnessed during the mining ban was the undue threats directed towards “Goa Foundation” by the vested interest groups. Gracefully, the real sufferers of the illegal mining operations and scams in Goa, which are the farmers, horticulturists, water supply department, whose filtering units were always choked with mining rejects and the common man of Goa, who suffers regularly due to heavy metal poisoning and disrupted supply of water, remained calm. Thus, the problems of the genuine suffering Goan remains ignored and unaddressed till today.

There is no logic or scientific reasoning in Goa. It is made out that the entire Goan population is of “Dependents” of illicit or illegal trades or occupations. Four and half lakhs are supposed to have dependence on mining, four and half lakhs of our population are shown by the press as dependent on alcohol trade and rest of us Goans would starve if casinos and gambling is stopped! Let us not talk further about those living on taxi operations, illegal gaddas and kiosks on every Goans roads, serving paan masala & bhel-puri, and the exploits of the fleecing cruise boats and pleasure speed boats across Goan rivers.

The  Supreme Court in all it’s wisdom with justified experiences on record has decided to ensure that highways be banned from the mushrooming of liquor shops and as law abiding press and citizens, we have to promote SC directions and thinking as it came upon this decision, after careful thought and granted a studied opinion in the form of the Judgement delivered on December 16, 2016.

It is a sad reality that unlike various State government like in Bihar, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, the Goa governments over the years did nothing to educate and liberate our society from the ill effects of alcohol trade and consumption. And that too after the Indian government came out with timely circulars since 2003.     

Even political parties in Goa seem not to understand the essence of Supreme Court decision of  December 16, 2016; both in letter and spirit. The warnings by the Central government to ensure no licences to alcohol sale are issued along highways were notified on January, 2004 & 24th October, 2007. The advisories sent against issuing bar licences in December 2011, March 2013 and finally emphasised in May, 2014 have met deaf ears and the Nelson’s eye treatment by Goa Government.

Finally when the Supreme Court has given April 1, 2017 as the final day for the implementation of its directions, the rich, the powerful and the exploiting few are out to assert their parasitic vision on the mute Goan society, all in the name of Goan identify, culture and society, if not of lives and livelihoods. Today in the garbof tourism we want loud deafening music beyond 10 pm, we want bars and dances past midnight and we fail to understand the sufferings of families due to alcoholism and addiction to habits of gambling. The Goa Government must not de-notify highways as panchayats would be burdened with expenses towards road repairs and challenges of garbage on these highways!

Goa today is a part of the rich Indian heritage of dignified work of productive livelihood free of doles and parasitism. The new government must ensure sanity, sagacity and simplicity of SC’s studied judgement in the interest of Goan society at large as every four minutes we lose a life due to road accident fatalities in India. Alcohol trade is a personal business and public money must not be used by the State Government to boost sale of liquor instead of the contrary.