Alcohol will kill virus in throat: Rajasthan Cong MLA to Gehlot

A Congress MLA in Rajasthan has urged Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to reopen liquor shops in the state amid the lockdown imposed due to COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter to Gehlot, Congress legislator Bharat Singh Kundanpur contended that alcohol consumption will kill the virus from the throat. This was his argument: “When sanitizers with alcohol content can wash off coronavirus from hands, it will remove the virus in throats as well.”

Bharat Singh Kundanpur, Congress MLA from Sangod has written to Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot for opening liquor shops in the state. The letter reads, "When #coronavirus can be removed by washing hands with alcohol, then drinking alcohol will surely remove virus from the throat". pic.twitter.com/ToVPomDI1Z

— ANI (@ANI) May 1, 2020

In addition to this, Singh also wrote that closing down of liquor shops has led to increased manufacturing of spurious liquor. Referring to an incident of Halena village in Bharatpur district, where two persons lost their eye sights and died after consuming country-made liquor, Kundanpur said alcoholics are risking their lives by consuming spurious liquors.

And with reopening of shops, the government can save alcoholics and can also boost the state’s economy amid the COVID-19 crisis.

“The government had set a target of ₹12,500 crore from the sale of alcohol in the year 2020-21, this is unlikely to be fulfilled with the ongoing lockdown”, he added.

In a similar incident, another MLA from Bhadara of Hanumangarh district, Balwan Singh Punia also wrote to Gehlot requesting the CM to grant permission to reopen liquor shops.

As on Friday (May 1), the state now has 2,617 confirmed cases of COVID-19, out of which 644 have been discharged from hospitals. There are 1,656 active cases, Singh said.

Jaipur has reported the highest number of cases with 913 infections, followed by 511 in Jodhpur.