Creating awareness about prohibition

Chennai

For how long is the padayatra planned? Who are the people involved?

Rajnish Kumar, President, All India Prohibition Council, and former Member of Parliament Ramjee Singh are going to be launching the padayatra. It will take place under the leadership of Dr. Kumari Ananthan, President, Gandhi Peravai. We have spoken to a number of political leaders — the workers of these parties are also expected to take part in it. It is a 50-day event, which will culminate at Kanyakumari on February 12.   We wanted to launch it on December 10 on Rajaji’s birth anniversary as he was the father of prohibition, but due to the floods we have deferred it for his death anniversary.

Is this going to be followed across India?

It is a national-level event, not restricted to Tamil Nadu alone. After the padayatra in Tamil Nadu, we are planning similar programmes in other states like Kerala and Karnataka.

What are the objectives of the padayatra?

We will be stressing on the ill-effects of alcohol consumption. We are also discussing alternative employment for those employed in liquor shops and we are also assessing alternative opportunities for them in the dairy industry, following some steps take in Bihar.