Sagar Hooch Tragedy Sparks Dry Law Demand in MP; Uma Calls for Vandalism
A team of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday visited the villages affected by liquor tragedy and interacted with the family members of the victims.
Bhopal: The Sagar hooch tragedy, which claimed over two dozen lives, has threatened to revive the demand for total prohibition in Madhya Pradesh, with former chief minister and senior BJP leader Uma Bharti backing the recent vandalism by a women-led mob at some places in the state.
She said that an anti-liquor campaign of such nature can alone lead to an alcohol-free Madhya Pradesh, and declared that she would soon visit the areas, where women-led protests pulled down liquor shops, to honour the activists.
“This is the only language (vandalism of alcohol shops) of an effective anti-liquor campaign”, she said.
Ms. Bharti, who held a closed-door-meeting with chief minister Mohan Yadav at her official residence here, said that the women force can alone help make the state alcohol free since they are the first victim in a family when the male member turns drunkard.
She held the elected representatives from sarpanch to MLA to MP of the area accountable for the local manufacture and sale of spurious liquor.
Referring to the Sagar liquor tragedy, she said that the local elected representatives should have prior information about the manufacture and sale of spurious liquor in their area and reported the matter to the police for action.
The elected representatives in the area, where the liquor tragedy took place, should be held accountable for this.
Several villages under Banda police station in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district vandalized many licensed and unlicensed liquor shops after the Sagar hooch tragedy.
Meanwhile, a team of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday visited the villages affected by liquor tragedy and interacted with the family members of the victims.
Unconfirmed reports say that as many as 28 people died after consuming spurious liquor in Sagar, the official death figure however is put at 16.
Ms. Bharti had unveiled the campaign to close down liquor shops forcibly in the state ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls and launched the anti-liquor campaign in style by herself vandalizing a liquor shop here.
