Vicinity of LGBI Airport is liquor & gambling den!

GUWAHATI, Aug 5: The vicinity of Lokapriya Gopith Bordoloi Intertiol (LGBI) Airport is a den where people liquor up and gamble their wherewithal away. 

‘Teer’, legal a gambling in Meghalaya that has its tentacles illegally spread into Assam as well, is a thriving business in areas like Dharapur, Garal, Mazirgaon, Azara, Kahikuchi, Khamukh etc. under Azara police station. There has been mushroom growth of ‘teer’ bookies in all these areas in the vicinity of the airport. Since gambling is prohibited in Assam the police there should crack down on the bookies and dismantle the den. However, things do not happen that way in Assam. The bookies are active under the very nose of police personnel. If the police want to root out the mece from the area, they can really do it. The problems, however, is that they do not do it for reasons best known to them. Gambling is infamous for making many families paupers.

The area is affected by yet another bane that has developed recently. Country liquor has been there since time immemorial. However, of late illegal IMFL has flooded the area. Bootleggers are out to mint money in the entire area. This is a recent development, especially following the Supreme Court of India’s guidelines on liquor shops on either sides of the tiol Highway. A section of liquor shops shifted to elsewhere following the SC guidelines. Taking that advantage, a section people do the mischief by bringing IMFL illegally and selling them in a clandestine way in their respective areas.

Moot question in the development is: What fate awaits the social atmosphere in these areas? Both gambling and drinking are the worst pollutants for social atmosphere, especially educatiol atmosphere. The worst affected in the development are the student community. Will the police crack down on them or look the other way?