In two days the month of February will be over which will leave just 31 days for the ban on liquor outlets within 500 meters on state and national highways to be implemented. We are clearly on one side of the argument with absolutely no doubt or ambiguity in our thinking. This ban needs to be amended and modified for several reasons that we have spelt out before. Without getting into a narrative about this, let’s list why this ban is not justified in Goa, for absolute clarity. This is being said with complete respect to the Supreme Court verdict, and made with the objective of highlighting how the Goa government missed out highlighting these points during the hearings of this matter.
– Drunken driving cannot be linked to drinking in highway bars or buying liquor from highway outlets.
– The responsibility of safe driving rests with the person who drinks alcohol and not the one who sells it.
– Removing all outlets selling liquor or banning bars and stopping alcohol on highways restaurants, will lead to a huge proliferation of bars in the interior roads of Goa.
– Many roads have been classified as highways and state highways simply to receive funding. Most are traditional pathways weaving their way through towns and cities. Some of them can be de- notified. A fresh thinking on these lines is needed.
– Legally speaking, it is doubtful if the Goa government can file a review petition since it was not a party to the original petition.
– What it can do is to move a fresh petition with a fresh cache of facts and argue the matter afresh.
However, this agitation will get teeth only if it gets the backing of the entire industry cutting across all sectors. The only criteria for participating in this agitation should be your love for Goa with some tangible stakes in the economy and well being of Goa’s economy. This cannot be fought in the media – social or otherwise. Therefore, the decision of liquor sellers and others to move across the State and educate their counterparts is surely a big step in the right direction.
Having underlined all this, it is equally important and brings on board, those who genuinely feel that rash and negligent driving is done by drunken drivers. If that is the case, then drunken driving must be stopped and to do that, there cannot be any gap between consumption and driving. And this has to be checked and stopped right at the source and the source, more often than not will not be a highway bar or restaurant.
The focus, we reiterate, has to shift from the seller to the consumer. And once that is done, there should be another course correction. We are not interested in how much, how often does a man (or woman) drink but whether he is getting behind the wheel of a vehicle after this drinking session. Once that is established, there will be no need to target liquor selling establishments that are over 50 years old.
That is the direction a fresh petition in court must take. This has to be drafted post haste and argued. And even those not on any highway should support this move for a fresh petition. It’s clear that this battle cannot be fought alone. And it should be fought not for the love of liquor but for the love of Goa.
