LI Research
Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Consumption is injurious to Health
A well known and the most famous health advisory, heard by everyone, spreading awareness across the nation of the ill effects associated with the habits of smoking drinking, is it ever taken seriously or acts as other source of content for the people? Well, a difficult issue to answer.
According to National Health Portal of India, there are about 3.2%of deaths across the globe occurs due to alcohol drinking. The reports of World health Organisation (WHO) shows that one fourth to one third of male population drinks alcohol in India with the use of alcohol, getting increased amongst the women.
So, is there any change which can be observed? The answer is no. the consumption of alcohol or smoking cigarette is nothing but a form of suicide which a person plans for himself/herself to take place slowly and gradually.
But what happens when the death comes not slowly and gradually rather due to the act of a pre-planned act of murder, designed in a way, that the alcohol consumed by people at large is made poisonous?
In the state of Punjab, in the late July and early August 2020, there were deaths reported by the State Government of about 121 people who were believed to have died because toxic intake of the illegally made alcohol in Punjab. There were about 63 deaths in the district of Tarn Tarn, followed by 12 deaths in Amritsar and 11 in Gurdaspur’ Batala.
On the investigation conducted of the matter the police found that the act involved the corrupted minds of seven excise officials, six policemen and 30 other people who were arrested in relation to the scam. The people who survived the effect of the poisonous or spurious alcohol, lost their eyesight or became permanently disabled.
In this challenging situation of spread of the deadly virus, the frivolous, corrupt and criminal minds of the people have not come to a halt. T
his issue became a good political issue with the great opportunity for the opposition to fill their vote banks. In such a situation, coming and working is still not a option which exist in India as the country revolves around the acts of getting political powers and getting involved in the hidden corrupt practices.
To support the families who have suffered loss due to this act, the Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh, declared an amount of compensation to the families. But will the compensatory amount provide a solution to the lost happiness of the families?
When the following case is analysed with the legal aspect the following points can be observed:
- The act of the authorities i.e., the tax and excise officials and the police workers, who are assigned to work to ensure and prevent the activities of illegal trafficking failed to comply with their duties. The act committed on their part can be the act of negligence or the act of corruption done with the aim to earn profit out of such a scandal, which in itself is matter of investigation.
- The act committed by the offenders towards the people at large by making the alcohol unfit for drinking, indicating towards the act of mass killing.
- The negligent act of the State of not maintaining proper health standards for the people of the state, infringing the fundamental rights of the citizens of India guaranteed under Article 21 and Article 47 of the Constitution of India.
The criminal act committed in the State of Punjab is no doubt an act scandalised in a planned manner taking the lives of hundreds of people and spoiling a large number of families and also infringing the right to life of the people but it brings us to the initial issue raised about the habit of consumption of alcohol.
Well, as a layman would say in a situation of hard times, if people would not have consumed alcohol, they would not have died. But making a country ‘nasha mukt’ is a difficult but not impossible task. It is high time for the people to realise that such activities are injurious to health.
As it is rightly said, ‘the learnings begin from home’, if a child does not see anyone in his/her family drinking or smoking, they would not get attracted to such an act. Further the power of the state granted under Article 47 of the Constitution of India, on limiting the supply is a necessary step towards such a development.
So far as the matter of Punjab is concerned, the accused should be granted strict punishments and the authorities should also be granted strict punishments for their negligent act and the matter needs to be resolved as soon as possible as it is said that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’.
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