Let panchayats decide on prohibition: Cong MLA

bangalore: congress mla d r patil on wednesday sought amendments to the karnataka panchayat raj act to empower gram panchayats to impose prohibition in their respective villages. participating in the budget discussion in the legislative assembly, he said villagers should be allowed to decide whether liquor should be sold in villages or not. "i am not seeking a total prohibition.it should be imposed in places where people want a ban. what is the point in vesting such powers with the state government?," he asked. patil said it was important for the government to wean away people from liquor. many villages have voluntarily imposed prohibition because of its adverse impact on the quality of life. "governments are interested in the revenue generated through liquor. but, who is bothered about the thousands of innocent lives?," he asked. intervening, p g r sindhia (jd(u)) said the sale of illicit hooch is rampant in gujarat which has imposed a complete ban on liquor. a committee was formed during the tenure of j h patel to visit different states to study the impact of prohibition. "the gujarat chief minister informed us that prohibition had led to rampant sale of illicit liquor. total prohibition is not the solution," he said and suggested the government encourage drinks which have a low alcohol content. welcoming the suggestion, patil said panchayat raj institutions (pri) should be given enforcement powers. but, mere closing down of liquor shops was not the solution, he added. y k ramaiah (cong) wanted the rural development and panchayat raj ministry to make pris accountable to carry out developmental work in the villages. the public hold the local legislators responsible for all developmental works when the actual work is carried out by the gram panchayats. earlier, s s patil (jd(u)) came down heavily on the government for having a jumbo-sized ministry. how can the government think of cutting expenses with such a huge ministry, he said and added that he opposed the budget as it is not pro-farmer. others who participated in the discussion included shahjahan ismail dongargaon, k v anasuyamma natarajan, parvathamma (all cong), k n subba reddy, apachu ranjan, yogish bhat, subash kallur (all bjp) chaluvarayaswamy, krishnamurthy k m (both jds), b n bache gowda and karadi sanganna (both jdu).