Dry state has turned Gujarat into a drug hub: Vaghela

Vadodara: Gujarat has become a hub of drugs because of the “hypocrite prohibition policy of the state government”, alleged former chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela on Saturday.
In Vadodara for an interaction with a group of citizens crusading for removal of prohibition law, Vaghela said that the youth in the state are driven to consume psychotropic substances owing to liquor ban. “If the government really wants to protect its young generation from the menace of the drugs, this anti-human policy should be removed,” Vaghela said.
Gujarat has prohibition in place as the state is considered land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. “But the context in which they (Bapu and Sardar Patel) talked for the necessity of prohibition, that context may not be scientific today,” Vaghela said, adding that Gujarat shares borders with Union territories and other states where people go to consume liquor. But the moment they step in to Gujarat, boozing turns into a criminal act. “This is an artificial prohibition while implementing it breeds corruption,” he said.
“As chief minister I had proposed that license to consume liquor be given liberally and the powers of police be given to excise department. But the then Congress chief Sitaram Kesari did not agree,” said Vaghela, who formed his own party in 1996 after leaving the BJP and became the chief minister with the support of Congress.