I will request liquor vend owners to relocate, says DC R K Rao

Posted online: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 03:49:30
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/I-will-request-liquor-vend-
owners-to-relocate-says-DC-R-K-Rao/309381/
RituSharma
Updated: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 05:17:06

Chandigarh, May 13 The haphazard allotments of liquor vends in the
city, many in the vicinity of residential areas and educational
institutions, has attracted the ire of many but the city policy
makers say they are helpless. Even UT Deputy Commissioner R K Rao,
who is also the UT Excise and Taxation, expressed helplessness and
shirked off the responsibility when asked about the uncontrolled
mushrooming of liquor vends in the city.
Chandigarh Newsline went around various areas in the city and found
innumerable liquor vends at all possible locations next the
educational institutions, in the middle of the residential areas,
marketplaces. The city administration seems to have turned a blind
eye towards the menace though.

When given certain specific instances, particularly of liquor vends
in Mauli complex, this is what Rao had to say. "I will call the
owners of such liquor vends for talks next week and request them to
relocate the liquor vends as there has been similar complaints
earlier. But I cannot force them to do so as they had been issued
license after they followed the requisite rules."

There are around seven liquor vends in an area of around 500 meters,
stretched between Mauli Jagran and Rajiv Colony. Somewhere, liquor
vends are even located on both the sides of the road, even face to
face. Rao said that the administration can not interfere in this
matter at all as there is no such rule wherein the administration can
restrict the number of liquor vends.

"With the lapse of auctioning system of liquor vends on March 31,
2008, and introduction of licensing policy from April 1, 2008, the
licenses are issued only after certain parameters are met by the
applicants. It is entirely demand and supply policy now. If these
vends are not viable in a particular area they certainly will move
out on their own," he added.

On the similar grounds, in the same area, Rao has earlier too
requested a liquor vend owner to shift his vend, as the same was
being opened near a vocational training centre, which is under
construction for under privileged children and is being brought up by
the Chandigarh Housing Board in collaboration with the Social Welfare
Department.

The problem of liquor vends has been aggravating with new vends
opening each day in the city. This has not only given an upsurge to
the phenomenon of children getting involved in alcohol abuse but also
creating uproar in the residents who are affected by these vends
being operational right next door



--- In aash_4all@yahoogroups.com, "Dr. Avnish Jolly"
<avnishjolly@...> wrote:
>
> Chandigarh and Child Rights
> http://www.theindiapost.com/?p=1581
>
> Posted by: Dr. Avnish Jolly on Monday, May 12th, 2008
> Chandigarh,12 May:More than half of Indian children under the age
of
> five do not get the health care they need, according to a recent
> report by Save the Children. It ranks India alongside Ghana when it
> comes to providing basic health care to its children less than five
> years of age. The annual report looks at whether developing
> countries are delivering health care effectively to children.
>
> It found the Philippines was performing best with almost 69% of
> children able to get access to health care. Ethiopia ranks last -
> only 16% of children under five get health care when they need it.
> Although India has cut child its mortality rate by 34% since 1990,
> Indian girls are 61% more likely than boys to die between the ages
of
> one and five. Inequity of health care among male and female
children
> is responsible for this situation, the report says. The report says
> experts predict that over 60% of the nearly 10 million children who
> die every year could be saved by delivering basic health services
> through a health facility or community health worker.
>
>
> Even Chandigarh - the City Beautiful with highest per capita income
> and highest literacy rate has a darker side too what about rest of
> the country. Recently a survey conducted on `Migration and
Morbidity
> Pattern among Residents in Chandigarh Slums' by the Department of
> Community Medicine, PGIMR along with the Department of Science and
> Technology, UT. Chandigarh, says that only 28 per cent of the
migrant
> population can manage basic necessities like food, shelter and
> clothing.
>
> There are 41 slums and colonies in the city, six were selected. In
> these, 600 families were interviewed. Over a third of the families
> had their per capita income between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000. Around
30
> per cent had it between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500. As many as 135 were
> families below the poverty line. The literacy rate among them was
> 58.6 per cent.
>
> The study reveals that around 80 per cent of the migrants are from
UP
> and Bihar. Around 97 per cent of the slum migrants in Chandigarh
come
> from rural areas. In the total migrant population, around 68 per
cent
> belong to the scheduled castes, while 13.5 per cent are OBCs. Half
> the households have no toilet facilities, though as an upside,
around
> 96 per cent had access to water. The more interesting is Municipal
> Corporation Chandigarh made Public Toilets in the slums and charges
> one rupee per day for each member of the family. If there are six
> members of the family they are paying around Rs. 200/- per month
for
> morning natural call.
>
> Commonly reported problems were fever, abdominal pain, cough and
> diahorrea. The commonest chronic morbidities in the group are
> hypertension, followed by anaemia and TB. The number of females
with
> chronic morbidities was 37.4 per cent, compared to 21.7 per cent in
> males. Though around 90 per cent people knew about availability of
> health care services, only 78 per cent of those who fell ill
utilised
> them, they prefer to visit quacks and faith healers. Usually for
> Jaundice they prefer treatment from Ojha (faith healer).
>
> The great matter of concern was that the most of students going to
> school is without morning meals and parents give them little money
to
> eat food (junk) at school canteen or food venders near school gate.
> Liquor vends hardly 50 meters from the premises of Government High
> School, Mauli Jagran, a slum in Chandigarh and state is not
concerned
> with the Child Rights. NGOs and Social Activists have reported that
> students, especially boys of higher classes, are getting into
alcohol
> abuse as well as other abuses like smoking, tobacco chewing, fluid
> sniffing etc. Think the money for food is utilize on what? Talking
to
> The India Post, a man working at the vend admitted that the school
> students both boys and girls do come to the vend to buy alcohol
> pretty often.
>
> Mr. Ashwani Kumar, Family Planning Association of India and works
for
> MSM in the area, shared that the children from slum areas and those
> who are involved in begging rag-picking, stealing goods, even male
> commercial sex workers (what ever thy earn from these activities)
are
> common visitors at the liquor vend. Whatever they earn in the day,
> they spend on liquor. Even the guardians gave overdose of
> expectorants to children so that they complete their household
> activates without any disturbance.
>
> As per the statute, no liquor and tobacco shop is permitted in the
> area of 50 meters from the main gate of a place of worship,
> educational institution and a place of public entertainment
according
> to Law in City Beautiful., but then who cares. This is a new kind
of
> role of state for the welfare of the citizens and migrants live in
> there own country without social security and public health support.
> People also migrated to the city for better education because city
> beautiful is also known as educational city. Recently the news
report
> about a large number of failures in a particular subject in class
> VIII conducted by Chandigarh U.T. Board is a mater of grave
concern.
> It appears that some school teachers, who was not well-versed with
> the syllabus in particular subject, was assigned to set the
question
> papers. This caused misery to parents.
>
> Coordination between different organs badly needed. We need to do a
> better job of reaching the poorest children with basic health
> measures like vaccines, antibiotics and skilled health care
providers
> to protect their Child Rights.
>