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NEW DELHI: Amid hooch tragedies in dry Bihar, Punjab’s Bhagwant Singh Mann government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it planned to provide a “cheap variant of country liquor” as a healthy substitute to wean away people from illicit homemade alcohol.
The AAP-governed state’s excise and taxation department said this in an affidavit even as senior advocate Ajit Sinha informed a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar that the police had alsostrengthened local-level intelligence to detect and destroy illegal liquor manufacturing ‘bhattis’, which had mushroomed over the years in the sensitive border state.
Sinha also said that the state had launched a massive awareness campaign against consumption of illicit liquor and the ill-effects of such homemade hooch.
The state had also announced rewards ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh to informers depending on the quantity of illicit liquor seized based on their information, he said.
However, its decision to provide cheap country liquor was unique. “To wean away illicit liquor consuming sections of society from its use, the state government has introduced in its current excise policy a cheap variant of country liquor having 40-degree strength. This liquor is going to be a healthy substitute for illegally brewed homemade liquor,” it said.
“Field officers of the excise department have been entrusted with the task of giving their requirement of 40-degree country liquor based on ground inputs sothat the same can be made available in illicit-liquor prone areas in the near future,” the government said.
The state government’s response came after the Justice Shah-led bench had during November 1 and December 5 hearings disapproved of the state’s lethargy in acting against the liquor mafia and those responsible for the 2020 hooch tragedies that had claimed 120 lives in Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Gurdaspur. The hooch tragedy-caused deaths had led to massive protests, including those by Bhagwant Mannled AAP against the then Congress government.
The AAP-governed state’s excise and taxation department said this in an affidavit even as senior advocate Ajit Sinha informed a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar that the police had alsostrengthened local-level intelligence to detect and destroy illegal liquor manufacturing ‘bhattis’, which had mushroomed over the years in the sensitive border state.
Sinha also said that the state had launched a massive awareness campaign against consumption of illicit liquor and the ill-effects of such homemade hooch.
The state had also announced rewards ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh to informers depending on the quantity of illicit liquor seized based on their information, he said.
However, its decision to provide cheap country liquor was unique. “To wean away illicit liquor consuming sections of society from its use, the state government has introduced in its current excise policy a cheap variant of country liquor having 40-degree strength. This liquor is going to be a healthy substitute for illegally brewed homemade liquor,” it said.
“Field officers of the excise department have been entrusted with the task of giving their requirement of 40-degree country liquor based on ground inputs sothat the same can be made available in illicit-liquor prone areas in the near future,” the government said.
The state government’s response came after the Justice Shah-led bench had during November 1 and December 5 hearings disapproved of the state’s lethargy in acting against the liquor mafia and those responsible for the 2020 hooch tragedies that had claimed 120 lives in Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Gurdaspur. The hooch tragedy-caused deaths had led to massive protests, including those by Bhagwant Mannled AAP against the then Congress government.
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