Bengaluru: Jail bharo andolan' against liquor sale on Martyrdom Day

Bengaluru: State’s well-known personalities will start ‘jail bharo andolan’ with women activists to intensify the ongoing liquor ban movement on Mahatma Gandhi’s Martyrdom Day January 30. On the occasion, thousands of rural women will take out a ‘padayatra’ to Bengaluru to lay siege to ‘Vidhana Soudha’. On the same day, women activists in every taluk and district centre will protest in support of the ‘andolan’.

This decision was taken during a huge public convention held at Siddaganga Matha on January 26 in the presence of Sanehalli Sri Panditaradhya Swamiji. One of reasons behind the protest against sale of liquor is domestic violence that women go through at the hands of their husbands and relatives.

Rural women will collect liquor sold illegally in their respective villages and wards and burn it to support ‘jail bharo andolan’ and protest against violation of the Constitution.

Article 47 of the Constitution clearly specifies liquor ban along with prohibition of consumption of intoxicating drugs. However, since Independence, no ruling party has banned the sale of liquor.

Madya Nishad Andolan alleges that political parties want the downtrodden society to spend on liquor, and this results in people getting addicted.

A huge protest movement consisting 40,000 people was held in Raichur, Karnataka in October 2016. The release states that despite such efforts, the ruling parties gave licences to open additional 500 liquor shops in the name of revenue generation.