Date:07/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/07/stories/2008070757100100.htm

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Illicit brew at a low ebb in southern districts: study

R. Ilangovan

SALEM: Seven sensitive southern districts of Tamil Nadu account for a mere 8 per cent of the State’s total prohibition offences against 60 per cent in the past.

This is one surprise from a study of illicit brewing and its socio-economic implications undertaken by Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) K. R. Shyamsundar, who is in charge of enforcing prohibition laws in the State.

Illicit brew and the economic supremacy it offered were the fuelling factors behind the 1996 caste clashes in the southern districts for more than five years, forcing the subsequent governments to initiate a slew of welfare initiatives.

Talking to The Hindu here, the ADGP said that pro-people measures and the stringent deterrent action taken in the last one decade had transformed these troubled districts into a sanctuary of peace.

Migration in search of jobs to places such as Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Tirupur and Kerala and the increasing literacy ratio were the other factors that had “significantly reduced” the flow of illicit brew here.

But the brew continues to ravage the livelihood of villagers and those below the poverty line in districts in the north, and parts of the west and central zones of the State, accounting for 92 per cent of the prohibition offences.

While 83 per cent of the offences are reported from Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore, Vellore and Villupuram in the northern zone and Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri in the western zone, the remaining cases are registered from Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Perambalur in the central zone.