Satara women fight to curb liquor flow during polls

SATARA: A group of women from Jawali tehsil of Satara district have decided to cast their votes for ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) if any party distributes liquor to woo voters in the tehsil.
The objective behind this is to address liquor issues in a bid to reduce domestic violence cases.
“Workers of various political parties have been distributing liquor to woo voters in the tehsil.The activity has vitiated the atmosphere and it may create law and order problem in many villages. As a result, we are conducting awareness campaigns for villagers so they do not fall prey to such tricks. So far, we have received a positive response,” Sangita Vende, convener of Satara district’s Mahila Rajsatta Aandolan (MRA), an NGO which works for women empowerment in Maharashtra,tsaid.
Vende and her supporters have so far conducted over 10 meetings in the last fortnight at various villages.
“The villagers mostly depend on agriculture or are daily wage labourers. Many political leaders offer liquor for free during the elections, which is an unlawful practice. On many occasions, some men get involved in domestic violence. To counter address this issue, we have adopted this tactic in this election and will continue till the assembly election of the state,” Vende said.
These women workers are not opposing voting saying it is not healthy for democracy. “We are not against the election process. In fact, we have been making people understand here that they have the power to elect a correct leader if they cast their votes consciously,” said Laxmi Chikane, the sarpanch of Ganji village situated at the foothills of Moleshwar hills, about 26km from Satara.
Over 500 women have joined hands to plug liquor from flowing into their village. “We have formed special squads to keep a close watch on this activity in every village,” senior worker Nilima Kadam said.
Meanwhile, the superintendent of police Tejaswini Satpute said they have registered at least 350 cases related to illegal distribution of liquor across the district. “We are yet to establish the link of these cases to political campaigning,” she said.