Highways and Liquor Shops

Eddie Viegas

This refers to your editorial of February 12, 2017 and the subsequent articles wherein it has been rightly pointed out the fact that accidents are more due to many factors other than just drunken driving which if at all, should be controlled by a stringent implementation of the law rather than by shifting the liquor shops a few metres away.

 Indeed by trying to shift the shops, the inconvenience and the loss caused to the shop or restaurant operators far out-weighs the possibility of reduction of accidents due to drunken driving throughout the country in general and in Goa in particular. This would be akin to the age old saying that refers to “Throwing the baby out with the bath-water”.

In recent times it has been found that a lot of accidents are caused due to the usage of mobiles while driving. Are we going to introduce a law that mobile phones cannot be carried inside the vehicles at all?

Highway side restaurants and bars, often called as Motels, are existing all over the civilized world. What is important is to stress upon “No driving while under the influence of liquor” rather than on shifting the liquor shops. In fact quite a few simple questions arise out of this proposal to shift the liquor shops.

(1) What stops the driver from driving 500 metres to have a drink and then continue driving?

(2) What stops the driver from carrying a bottle in his vehicle to have a swig at his own pace and continue driving? In fact now that the bars are required to be shifted, this is more likely to happen.

In our country, we have a habit of adopting practices that are a source of nuisance to the larger percentage of people because a miniscule of the population does not follow the rules. e.g. because of a few people speeding, we put speed breakers on high-ways causing health hazards and even accidents to others. Because a few people do not know how to drink and behave, we bring in prohibition where by bootlegging and deaths due to spurious liquor are rampant.

The thrust should be on better implementation of the law. Better education of our people with regard to drunken driving. Better engineered and better maintained roads rather than on shifting liquor shops. Let us stop making a laughing stock of ourselves.