Thousand women send money orders to Yediyurappa seeking ban on liquor

Belagavi: Women across the state took to postal protest, with nearly a 1,000 of them sending money orders to chief minister BS Yediyurappa, demanding a blanket ban on sale of liquor.
Activists from the Madhya Nishedha Andolana, an organisation that has been campaigning for prohibition on liquor sale since 2016, said that women would continue to send money orders to the CM every Monday till the government acceded to its demand.
In 2018, members of the organisation had sat in a 71-day round-the-clock dharna from February 20 to May 1. More than 75,000 people participated in the agitation in 2018. The following year, the organisation called for a similar mass protest in Bengaluru, calling on like-minded people to converge in the state capital from across Karnataka. Unfortunately, an activist died in an accident en route to Bengaluru.
Member of the andolana’s state committee Swarna Bhat said that 1,000 women, spread across 22 districts, had sent money orders to the CM. “The state government justified its decision to throw open liquor outlets citing shortfall in revenue,” Swarna told TOI.
Swarna, a Mangaluru-based activist, said that the women, who were victims of alcoholism, were sending across a message to the government. “We are telling the CM that we will fund welfare schemes of the government. Mahatma Gandhi dubbed use of revenue collected from sale of liquor for welfare schemes ‘immoral’,” she added.
The andolana’s state convener Vidhya Patil reiterated the human cost of alcohol addiction. “There is a direct link between alcoholism and domestic violence, and many families have gone bankrupt because of addiction to liquor. In addition to sending money orders to the CM, the women also held placards seeking a ban on sale of alcohol,” said Vidhya.
Ningamma, a resident of Dharwad, and Swapna from Bidar, said that they would not relent, and would continue with their unique protest till the government imposed a ban on alcohol sale.