Taking a U-turn on his statement that he did not consider liquor to be an intoxicant, Punjab Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani on Wednesday said that his statement was blown out of proportions and he did not mean what was published in the media. Terming alcohol to be the root cause of all vice, Jyani said that he favours a nationwide ban on liquor.
To clarify his position, he said that his earlier statement was meant to defy the false claims being disseminated by Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi and others, who claim that 80 per cent of Punjab youth is in the grip of intoxication. He said that he is a teetotaler and personally favours complete prohibition as liquor causes not only health troubles but it has its social concerns also.
Repeating his words for which he had faced severe criticism Jyani said, “Media quoted me saying “alcohol is a good thing to have and I don’t consider alcohol as an intoxicant” but I never said so in this context
Jyani said, “I don’t want to count alcohol as addiction, because its consumption has found acceptance in our society, Government makes excise policy and allows liquor vends, and its consumption is not considered to be a vice up to a level”
He said, "If we link alcohol users in the category of addicted, then all the people who use it as a mean of hospitality in their parties, will come under the category of addicts. Alcohol is served in civilized parties, in the army and every alcohol consumer can not be taken as an addict.”
Talking on the performance of health department he said that in the last four years, the doctors availability in Government health institutes has improved and there is a vacancy of 425 doctors in the health sector.
Talking on the implementation of PC and PNDT Act, he said that Detective agencies are being empanelled for sting operations against the violators of PC & PNDT Act. He also said that Government has tried to rope in general public in its campaign to act severely against violators and reward money for the informer has been raised from `20,000 to `1 lakh. He said that Inter-state coordination with neighbouring states has been stepped-up for catching the violators of
PC PNDT act and Principal Secretary level talks have been held between the
States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in September, 2015.