It is shocking to learn that AP is one of the ill-famous states witnessing deaths and disease conditions due to alcohol abuse. Studies show that, about 30% of the population are habituated to drinking alcohol and thousands die of cirrhosis of the liver and other disease conditions every year.
The outcome of alcoholism is manifest in the widespread occurrence of crimes, suicides, widowhood, road accidents, broken families and financial wretchedness. As many as 10,000 women got widowhood at a young age because of adulterated toddy in the districts of Warangal, Karimnagar, Khammam and Adilabad.
Despite all this, there is no de-addiction centre nor an organization taking care of the affairs and the required rehabilitation for victims of the abuse. Further, about 50 to 60% of the accidents in AP are because of drunken driving.
The state is dotted with 5,686 shops which are licensed and about 2 lakh unauthorised private belt shops. However, there is no official authority to register statistics of liquor-related deaths. The new excise policy, that does not have any checks on about two lakh belt shops has been opposed by many organisations.
Source: DC