The latest news is that anyone who falls ill as a result of alcohol consumption would have to pay his own medical bill at government hospitals.
Affluent people go to private hospitals when they fall ill. It is only the very poor who consume poisonous alcoholic brews, such as “kasippu”. Legal liquors are beyond their reach.
In 1953, the then Minister of Finance, N. M. Perera, permitted each household to tap one coconut tree for toddy (“ra”) consumption.
He knew that “mathata thitha” cannot be achieved by legislation alone. This praiseworthy act earned the Minister the nickname “Ra Perera”.
P. A. Binduhewa,
Panadura. |
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