THE
LIGHT OF ANDAMANS Vol: 36 | Issue: 03 - Editorial
Death On Self
Service
Set aside the demand for quarry materials,
forget scarcity of vegetables or life sustaining potable water. There was an
urgent and immediate need for a self-servicing wine shop in the heart of the
town. Don’t blame the Administration if it was not properly advertised, or
given the publicity it required. It was on the top priority to have a place
with the ambience of a mall, where one can walk, choose a bottle of
poison, to make merry and forget all other worries that grip the Islanders.
The new look wine shop from ANIIDCO is another move of the Admn, towards
achieving the much needed revenue that is the foremost focus of the
people-centric government.
As if the number of bars in the city and
wine shops run by ANIIDCO at different points were not enough to push the small
population of the Islands to the abyss of
death, the new format shop in the most presentable manner offers death in the
most modish style.
The long queues at the wine shops, with a
bag in hand to hide the bottle they purchase manifested the inherent
embarrassment everyone has to the habit they nurture. Now, stop thinking about
the disgrace or ignominy attached with alcoholism, or the queue in front of the
shops, it’s the new fad to walk in style into the showroom where everyone on
the street can see the brand one prefers and even take your family and children
while you shop for the preferred brand. It’s offered in such a style!
Who cares about the shocking press meet last
month, in which Director General of Police SBS Deol had revealed that the
police gets about 4-5 complaints every day on attempted suicides from the
Islands. Now what’s the connection, one might ask. Alcohol has been one of the
principal killers in the Islands . The amount
of liquor that flows in the Islands has no
parallel anywhere in the country. The number of excise related cases and family
disintegration issues will find a link that leads to alcoholism.
Now don’t ask why nobody is bothered. We
were never bothered, when we went through severe water crisis, intermittent
power cuts or when the developmental works were affected due to
non-availability of construction materials. It seems the Admn also fully
understands our priorities. Even without asking or demanding, they have opened
the wine showroom for our convenience. Now, don’t blame the Admn for not asking
us. When have they asked us before taking any major step, for the good or bad
of the Islanders?
But note it down - gradually our aversion
towards alcoholism is also going to evaporate. Now, when we walk through the
street with our children, chances are there that they will force us to visit
the newly opened showroom just for the charm of it, like they force us to have a
bite of AFC chicken.
Why the Admn never gives a thought on opening up fresh vegetable shops or even generic medicine shops at every nook and corner of the Islands? May be the new economic policies, where growth and profits are the only motive doesn't even allow them to think on that line.
Why the Admn never gives a thought on opening up fresh vegetable shops or even generic medicine shops at every nook and corner of the Islands? May be the new economic policies, where growth and profits are the only motive doesn't even allow them to think on that line.
The priorities of the Admn are indeed very
strange. But if we remain mute spectators to such moves of the Admn, it’s a not
a good sign for a society, which still claims to be the descendents of freedom
fighters, who dreamt of a sane polity in full senses.