Sit in protest against the opening of liquor factories in Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand

Several representatives of the socio-political organisations under the stewardship of the founder youth leader of Prajamandal political party Sameer Raturi today sat on an indefinite Dharna cum protest at the Sub Divisional Magistrate’s office in Kirtinagar, near Srinagar, Pauri Garhwal demanding immediate closure of the Hill Top indigenous liquor plant at Devprayag, spiritual and religious township and subsequent opening of mineral water and juice plants to provide employment to the local unemployed youths.

Several women representatives of Prajamandar party, village heads, saints and Swami Darshan Bharti with Sameer Raturi are participating in this sit-in cum protest raising anti-establishment slogans demanding employment but not liquor factories.

The tag line of this movement is Nasha Nahi Rozgaar Do. Give employment, not addiction. The excise department has opened a liquor manufacturing plant at Devprayag recently against local protests by the inhabitants of the nearby villages and regional socio-political outfits demanding the opening of the mineral water or juice plants instead of liquor factories.

The protestors are apprehensive that more such plants are in the offing in the land of interior villages of Uttarakhand as the government allegedly generates a huge amount of revenue annually from the massive liquor sales in the state.

Speaking to Newsviewsnetwork the Prajamandal party chief Sameer Raturi said that the Dharna cum protest has been organized against the government’s decision to open liquor factories at Devprayag and Satpuli Pauri Garhwal which would ultimately benefit the liquor mafia and the profit-making industrialists.

The liquor business is entirely against the sentiments of the people living in Uttarakhand villages whose families are being spoiled through liquor addiction.

They demand that instead of liquor manufacturing plants the govt should emphasize on opening juice, mineral water or milk plants in the hills in order to provide massive employment to the unemployed youths sitting idle at homes currently.

Sameer Raturi says that in 2016 the land where now the liquor plants have been started was actually allocated for the opening of mineral water and juice plants but dishonoring the peoples’ wishes the liquor plants have come up to the utter dismay and shock of the local residents.

He questioned the credibility of the politicians at the helm terming them as hypocrites who on the one hand talk of NASHAMUKTI in public meetings and government-sponsored awareness campaigns and on the other hand are hell-bent upon opening liquor factories in Uttarakhand belying the emotions and wishes of the people who’d voted them to power with a historic majority. Raturi said that their campaign of awareness against the opening of liquor shops will continue till the government does not accede to their demands.

It may be recalled that the annual revenue that the government of Uttarakhand earns from the massive liquor sales in Uttarakhand is whopping 2300 crores approximately.

It may be remembered that socio-political activist Sameer Raturi is credited for waging a protracted struggle in Maletha, a historic village in Garhwal taking into confidence hundreds of local villagers demanding closure of illegal stone crushers functioning in Maletha degrading the already fragile environment of the hills and causing irreparable damage to peoples’ health. The then government of Harish Rawat had to finally bow down and the stone crushers were finally removed from Maletha Gram Sabha land. This was in 2017. The movement had then assumed a state-level shape and had become quite popular.