Drunk driving just a drop in state’s challan bottle

Punjab Police has issued only 212 challans for drunken driving so far this year out of a total of 2.05 lakh challans issued for various traffic violations in the state during this period. During the entire last year,only 715 persons were booked for drunken driving out of 5.58 lakh challans issues for various traffic violations.

As per Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (Non Governmental Organization),Kerala tops the country in annual consumption of hard liquor at eight litres per capita,followed by Punjab with 7.9 litres per capita.

In the last three years there has been no challan for drunken driving in Muktsar,the home district of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Besides Muktsar,in five other police districts of the state there was no challan for drunken driving. These are Mansa,Ludhiana (Rural),Kapurthala,Jalandhar (Rural) and Amritsar (Rural).

Liquor consumption and revenue has been steadily increasing in Punjab over the last few years. Punjab Government’s target is to sell 30.60 crore liquor bottles in the state during the current financial year. Punjab Excise and Taxation Commissioner A Venu Prasad,said,“This year the state has the target of supplying 30.60 crore liquor bottles,of these including 18 crore country made,6 crore IMFL and 6.60 crore beer bottles,to the 8000 liquor vends in the state. The highest consumption of liquor is in the Malwa region of the state.’’

Going by statistics,each person in the state,including women and children will consume more than 11 bottles of liquor this year. Last year nearly 29 crore bottles were sold in the state,these included country made liquor,IMFL and beer,the state having a population of 27.7 million comprising 14.6 million males and 13.1 million females.

During the last three years highest number of challans for drunken driving were issued in the historical districts of the state – the highest number of challans this year are in SBS Nagar 63 of them,last year 147 challans in Fatehgarh Sahib and 538 in Amritsar in 2009 for drunken driving.

The Excise Policy for the year 2011-12 which was approved in February this year by the government has estimated an increase of Rs 728 crore over the last financial year. As a result of this,the excise revenues will touch Rs 3190.49 crores at the end of March,2012 giving an increase of approx 30 per cent over 2010-11. The quota for the current year has been increased approx by 10 per cent over the last year. This amounts to approx 60 lakh cases (each case 12 bottles) of IMFL,1.77 crore cases of country made liquor and 50 lakh cases of beer,as there are total 8000 liquor vends across the state.

The consumption of liquor in Punjab has risen dramatically as the distillation of illicit liquor is a very common practice in rural areas. For the year 2011-12, the total quota will be 1290 lakh proof litres,out of which 884 lakh proof litres will be of country made liquor and 406 lakh proof litres will be of IMFL.

Additional Director General of Police (Traffic and Railways) RP Singh said,“comprehensive directions have been issued to all the Police Commissioners and Senior Superintendents of Police in the state to crack down on drunken driving and over speeding.’’