Date:25/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/25/stories/2008052553310300.htm

Karnataka

JD(S), BJP blamed for hooch tragedy

Staff Correspondent

DAVANGERE: The Karnataka State Arrack Manufacturers’ and Workers’ Association has blamed the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government for the recent hooch tragedy in the State, which has claimed over a hundred lives.

H.K. Ramachandrappa, president of the association, told presspersons here on Saturday that the coalition government, without making a scientific study of the consequences of banning arrack, had legislated in haste. The ban had forced poor people to buy cheaper illicit liquor, resulting in the large-scale deaths.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader wondered what the Excise Department was doing all this while, instead of taking preventive action. The ban on arrack had not saved the poor, as the Government had claimed, he said and added that those who used to consume arrack by spending Rs. 20 a day were forced to shell out more owing to its non-availability.

Excise revenue

He questioned the positive effects said to have come as a consequence of the ban and said it had only worsened the lives of the poor. Several arrack producers and workers had become jobless after the ban was implemented, he said.

Excise revenue had gone up from Rs. 1,500 crore to Rs. 2,000 crore after the ban, he said and demanded that the Government adequately compensate the families of those who had been killed by the spurious liquor.

K.G. Shivamurthy, vice-president of the association, and T.E. Thippeswamy, general secretary, were present.