Kamal said, the state government should give away the shops and instead start rehabilitation centers near liquor shops to help people who want to quit the habit.

news Politics Tuesday, February 02, 2021 - 19:27
TNM Staff

Makkal Neethi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan on Tuesday pitched for privatizing Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (TASAMC), the state-owned liquor major, citing the death of sub-inspector Balu who was killed by an inebriated man in Thoothukudi on Monday. The MNM founder also said, the liquor shops should be given to the private sector and the government should monitor and regulate the sales of liquor.

On Monday, a sub-inspector of Eral police station in Thoothukudi V Balu, died after a drunken man R Murugavel traveling in his goods carrier rammed into the two-wheeler in which Balu was riding. Balu was riding pillion on the two-wheeler seized from the accused since Murugavel drove the bike and created a ruckus in an inebriated state in Thoothukudi on Monday.

Reacting to the incident and calling the state to sell the liquor enterprise it runs, Kamal Haasan said, “An inebriated man created a ruckus in a public place in which a righteous police sub-inspector Balu died.”

He said that even the wife of the accused had attempted to kill herself due to the pain inflicted by her husband's alcoholism.

“Also, this government has made several lakhs of Tamil youth drink in the morning and contract the "alcohol disease". It is not the government's duty to sell liquor. It should be given to the private sector and the government should monitor the sales,” he said.

Instead, Kamal opined, the state government should start free rehabilitation centers for people who want to free themselves from 'the clutches of alcohol'. “Wherever there is a liquor shop, a rehabilitation center should be set up at the same place,” he said.

The recent statement by Kamal Haasan can be viewed as a continuation to his column for a Tamil magazine in 2018 where he said that he was against the total ban of liquor. In 2018, Kamal Haasan said, Makkal Neethi Maiam does not believe in total prohibition of liquor since it is not the answer to reducing alcohol consumption in the state.

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