Dear Editor,
It is indeed very heartening to read pronouncements and statements by two senior Government Ministers — Dr George Norton and Khemraj Ramjattan — of the need for an Alcohol Control Bill to deal with extremely negative and horrendous consequences of alcohol abuse in our dear land of Guyana.
Following the recent assent by President Granger of the Tobacco Control Bill, there can be absolutely no doubt that the Government must proceed to craft legislation to curb, in a draconian manner, the distribution and consumption of alcohol in this country.
I give my wholehearted support to the most welcome and long overdue pronouncements of abovementioned Ministers, and I hope that persons/organisations across the entire spectrum of life will support this much needed initiative to enact an Alcohol Control Bill in the shortest possible time.
I hereby challenge the Government to do all that is necessary to bring a bill to Parliament no later than 2019.
The Hindu organisation that I am associated with, the Gandhi Youth Organization /Mahatma Gandhi Organization (registered in 1953) has long recognised the deleterious effects of alcohol, to the extent that one of the Organisation’s aims and objectives is “to campaign against the excessive consumption of alcohol in the community”, which we have witnessed in this country over the decades.
I would like to make a call, particularly to my Hindu brothers and sisters individually and through their respective mandirs, to do all that is in their power to keep the pressure on our legislators to bring a proposed Alcohol Control Bill to early fruition.
Minister Ramjattan, please use your good office to continue to enforce our laws, and ensure all bars and night clubs CLOSE at 2:00am, as is on our law books governing the regulation of these entities.
Yours truly,
Chris Persaud
