It is very en­cour­ag­ing to see that the State has recog­nised the dan­gers brought about by the un­con­trolled re­open­ing of bars and the need to close­ly mon­i­tor op­er­a­tions in this area.

It must be ac­knowl­edged that the peo­ple who pa­tro­n­ise such es­tab­lish­ments are not not­ed for their sense of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. The peo­ple who live in the vicin­i­ty of these es­tab­lish­ments would read­i­ly bear tes­ti­mo­ny to the rep­re­hen­si­ble and dan­ger­ous be­hav­iour of peo­ple who are un­der the in­flu­ence of al­co­hol. More peo­ple are in­jured and killed by ac­ci­dents in­volv­ing drunk­en dri­vers than any oth­er type of ac­ci­dent.

There is a crit­i­cal need to es­tab­lish and main­tain con­trols over this area of so­cial life, and not just in the short term, to en­sure that law-abid­ing cit­i­zens are pro­tect­ed from peo­ple who are heed­less of their own safe­ty, far less that of oth­ers. Strict mon­i­tor­ing and con­trol are nec­es­sary as we loosen the rigid prac­tices of the re­cent past.

What­ev­er ac­tions tak­en by the state to main­tain or­der in the so­ci­ety will have the sup­port of the vast ma­jor­i­ty of the na­tion’s cit­i­zens.

Good on you, Mr Min­is­ter of Health.

Karan Ma­habirs­ingh

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