Rajasthan village votes to close liquor shop

Contrary to popular perception that liquor can buy votes, a Rajasthan village has voted overwhelmingly to shut down the only liquor shop in the village. Of the 2,039 votes polled in Kachchbali gram panchayat in tribal-dominated Rajsamand district, 1,937 — or well over 90 per cent — gave a resounding thumbs-down to the booze shop, according to the results declared by sub-divisional magistrate N.K. Jain. According to excise department rules, 51 per cent of the electorate has to vote against liquor for there to be a ban in the area. The results will now be presented before the district administration following which the excise department is likely to issue a notification announcing the closure of all liquor shops within Kachchbali.

Rajasthan has seen a heated public debate on liquor prohibition over the past few months, especially following the death of former MLA Gurusharan Chhabra, who died while on hungerstrike demanding complete prohibition.

Although the state government has expressed unwillingness to impose a complete ban on liquor citing revenue loss and impracticality as it would encourage spurious liquor, drugs and smuggling, it has provided a window by incorporating a clause in the Excise Act whereas a shop can be closed if more than half the population votes against liquor sale in the area.

Armed with this rule, village sarpanch Geeta led the campaign that began on Republic Day this year when women from the village raised the demand during a meeting of the gram sabha. On February 27, about 1,600 residents signed a memorandum calling for complete prohibition on the sale of liquor in their panchayat during a special gram sabha meet. On March 14, after 950 voters vetted the memorandum and its signatories, the excise department approved the vote via a notification.

Vikram Pal Singh of Magra Shakti Sena, an organisation working for the banning of liquor in the area, said it was perhaps the first time that such a democratic process had been followed to close down a liquor outlet.

The village has become the first in the state to vote in support of closing down the only liquor shop in an area where 84 people have died in accidents caused by drunk driving in the past five years. “Almost every other family here has lost somebody to alcoholism,” said SDM Narendra Kumar Jain. Not surprisingly, only 33 people voted against shutting the shop.