Amid hooch hullabaloo,cops come up with answer to alcohol addiction

Director General of Police S S Khandwawala told The Indian Express on Sunday: “After the tragic hooch deaths in Ahmedabad,the state government had decided to start de-addiction centres across Gujarat. But Gujarat Police thought of strengthening the existing de-addiction centres to tackle the problem.”

He added: “We selected various agencies to tackle the problem. For instance,the Prohibition Department was asked to control the sale of chemicals from industries and liquor brewing in the state. In order to uproot the problem,we thought of including Nashabandhi Mandal to work at the grassroots level on this subject.”

The Nashabandhi Mandal,as per the decision,has chalked out their programme for Ahmedabad city,which would be later extended to other major cities and districts in Gujarat.

With the Interrogated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts (IRCA),the de-addiction hospital in Ahmedabad that operates on a large scale,the organisation has another five de-addiction hospitals across the state in Rajkot,Surat,Nadiad,Bharuch and Banaskantha.

Harvadan Parmar,the secretary of Nashabandhi Mandal,said: “We have formed a team of two counsellors,one doctor,one nurse and one ward boy.

They will visit those neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad that are the most vulnerable to alcohol addiction. We will also take help from the Urban Development Centres of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. We have made a list of people who died in the hooch tragedy and have the pockets from where we will begin first.”

The programme will start from the industrial areas of Ahmedabad: Odhav,Naroda,Vatva and Bapunagar.

It will stretch to other areas where liquor addiction is reportedly high.

According to the mandal,the team of experts would give personal as well as family counselling,where their family and psychological backgrounds will be studied.

The programme will include motivating addicts through field camps,meetings,community programmes and the like. They will be put through group therapy and discussions.

Later,a detoxification programme after complete examination of the case will be administered either at the OPD level or indoor level.

Apart from the programmes in major cities,the Mandal’s volunteers working at the taluka level would target addicts in villages also.

Parmar added,“The cities where the hospitals are not present would get volunteer service. The volunteers will go with doctors working at the village or taluka levels and carry out the de-addiction programmes. But since this is a long process,we will carry out the programme in villages,step by step.”

Cops to take help of religious leaders

The Gujarat Police,in their bid to tackle alcoholism,has decided to take help from religious organisations in the state. State DGP S S Khandwawala said: “We are also trying to seek help from religious groups to reach out to people at all community levels. For instance,the Swaminarayan Sanstha usually imparts lessons on eliminating alcohol addictions and other bad habits. Similarly,some Muslim community elders issue fatwas on certain activities that are restricted by the laws of faith. If they issue a fatwa on this,it will have a bigger impact on the community. Therefore,we are trying to talk to community leaders like Morari Bapu and such other people who can direct their followers to stop consuming alcohol.