Indian Army - The King of Good times ?

Given below is a news report from the August 2005 issue of Alive Magazine.

Indian Army - The King of Good Times ?



The defence authorities,concerned with the impact that the easily
available and low-priced alcohol was having on the troops ,
have now decided to cut the monthly quota of canteen liquor
for officers and other ranks.

According to the new quota,the entitlement for jawans is 6 bottles
a months while for officers it is 12 to 16 bottles , according to their
ranks.The quota for retired armed forces personnel , too has been
reduced .Retired jawans now get 4 bottles and officers,
from 10 to 14 bottles.

Liquor is supplied free to officers and jawans in the field areas of
inclement weather to help them withstand cold, boredom, loneliness
and isolation.Servicemen elsewhere get liquor at a low cost,
as a concession to their difficult service condtitions.

The availability of cheap liquor from the army canteens turns a good
number of them into habitual drinkers, adversely affecting their health
and family life. If often becomes a source of corruption too , because
the liquor could be sold to civilians for double the price.

No officer would be consuming half a bottle of rum or whisky daily,
yet most of them draw their full quota from the canteen. Large-scale
diversion of canteen liquor to the civil market is reported and instances
of court martial of the responsible officers are not uncommon.

There is need to control the huge quantity of alcohol supplied
to the armed forces.The liquor cartels encourage it because they
make huge profits from the sales.The low price of canteen liquor
is maintained at the Government's expense ,because
of exemption of excise and sales tax.

A karnataka based ex-servicemen's organisation VeKare , has been
carrying on a campaign on the ill-effects of excessive alcohol
consumption in the armed forces.As far as retired officers and
jawans are concerned ,there is no justification in supplying them
liquor at a low price fro mthe army canteens.It
only helps them to become drunkards and make them spend a
considerable portion of their pension on liquor when their income
is substantially reduced after retirement.

Besides many of them indulge in the corrupt
practice of selling their entitlement at a profit to outsiders.
Therefore, apart from drastically reducing the quota for
servicemen,the Government should stop sale of low-cost liquor
to ex-servicemen from army canteens.


Looks like
the decrease in quota didn't seem to have the desired effect
Given below are two incidents that have taken place in the last two weeks.
Panic after jawans enter women's hostel

DHENKANAL, July 7: The intrusion of three Army jawans into Dhenkanal
Working Women's hostel made inmates very anxious last night. The inmates
could not sleep and still fear staying inside the hostel despite the
lack of adequate security.According to hostel sources, three jawans
intruded into the hostel by jumping over the main gate on Thursday
evening.They knocked on a door and one of them tried to break the door.

One of the frightened inmates rang up the town police station and
sought help to apprehend the sepoys. Two jawans managed to escape,
another rushed towards Gudinali and was caught by the police
with the active cooperation of locals.
The jawan who was arrested was in an intoxicated condition.



and in another incident



Army jawans strip passenger in train

BEGUSARAI: A passenger on the Guwahati-New Delhi North East Express was allegedly stripped and tortured by a group of drunk jawans who have been arrested, Railway Protection Force sources said on Wednesday.

Parmatma Yadav of Balia, Uttar Pradesh, was stripped and forced to run naked in an aisle of the train on Tuesday night, RPF Assistant Commissioner Mahtab Khan and Barauni RPF officer-in-charge O A Khan said




While our drunk Indian Army Jawans go about terrorising civilians
our enlightened Railway Protection Force beats a sick man
to his death thinking he is drunk

SURAT: Patel was an employee with an MNC in Vapi and was not keeping
well for quite sometime.

He had called his uncle Bhagwandin from Rewa and had asked him to take
him back to his hometown. On Tuesday evening, Patel, accompanied by his uncle,mistakenly boarded a Mumbai-bound train at Vapi railway station
instead of boarding a Surat train.

Realising this, the duo got down at Dahanu railway station. At Dahanu
platform Patel felt fatigued and fainted on the spot. While his
uncle was busy helping Patel get up, a few plain clothed railway
policemen suspected the duo to be drunk.

One of the policemen badly beat Patel up only to realise later that
he was sick. The policemen threatened Patel and his uncle of dire
consequences if they approached the police in Surat.

Bhagwandin took Patel to the GRP railway policestation at Surat
and lodged a complaint against the policemen at around 3:30 am on
Wednesday morning. The police took him to the Civil hospital for
first aid, where he succumbed.



While the Indian army is lost in drunken stupor

The People's Guerilla Liberation Army
is busy enforcing 'total prohibition' in the areas where they
function

Maoists impose liquor ban in agency
A group of naxal activists destroyed a liquor shop at
Rintada recently and later went to Chintapalle to attack another shop.

Maoists back strike against Liquor.
The State committee of the CPI-ML(Maoist) on Tuesday called upon the activists of Anti-Liquor Forum and democratic forces to educate people on waging a struggle against the Government's excise policy.


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