Hoshiarpur: President of Bharat Jagao Andolan, Mr. Jai Gopal Dhiman on the basis of an RTI report alleged, “Punjab Government doesn’t regard liquor as intoxicant (nasha).” Mr. Jai Gopal Dhiman has received a reply to his RTI application from the Excise and Taxation department of Punjab Government that how the number of wine shops increased annually.
The data of number of wine shops in the respective years in shown below. The data belongs to Hoshiarpur district.
Year No. of Desi wine shops No. of English wine shops
2010-11 263 133
2011-12 273 165
2012-13 287 179
2013-14 311 200
2014-15 311 211
Mr. Jai Gopal Dhiman said that the increase of the wine shops depicts the attitude of Punjab Government towards the people of Punjab. He said that the Punjab Government have been taking up the matter of drugs just as a show off. He said, “The Punjab Government must ban the liquor to show its attitude against drugs and intoxication.”