After more than 114 deaths due to raw alcohol in UP and Uttarakhand, the government is not even bothering to take the stock of the situation in west U.P, were few months back children reached school after consuming alcohol, which is being sold openly in general stores. These children were resticated from school two months ago in a village in Meerut. If the government had taken any lessons from this phenomenon, perhaps the idea to crack down on liquor syndicate would have been taken much before and such a big tragedy could have been averted. It is know known that what effect raw liquor syndicate is having on the villages from Uttarakhand to Khader area of Meerut, In the Khadar region of Saharanpur, Roorkee, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Bijnor, large quantities of liquor is being made in the jungle and it is being supplied to the villages. After this gruesome incident the administration has woken up.
Here the biggest syndicate of raw liquor, is in Hastinapur of Meerut, Purkaji of Muzaffarnagar, Bhagwanpur and and Chilakana in Roorkee area. There are hundreds of furnaces in this area. In this area around the Ganges even Excise officers and police do not have the courage to go there, many times they have been attacked also. In 2009 an operation was launched against this syndicate, and for some months it surely was successful . During that time, a dozen deaths were caused due to poisonous liquor, after which hundreds of furnaces were destroyed under the leadership of Meerut IG Javed Akhtar. But since then it has grown more firmly. According to the villagers, they have the support of Excise and the Police. In Saharanpur, those who died, mostly come from Dalit society.
On Tuesday, police claimed to have arrested a young man named Arjun from Roorkee. According to the Saharanpur administration, he is same Arjun, who has prepared 6 drum alcohol by using rectified chemicals, 3 drums were sold, these three drums were responsible for the tragedy. If all 6 drum were supplied, the situation would have been more worse. According to Excise officials, due to the high volume of rectified, this liquor became poison.
In 2008, drink was made from this rectified spirit in Meerut where 12 people died. According to Jagannath Singh, former MLA of Saharanpur, illegal trade of raw liquor runs with the help of police force. Police has a huge earning from it. All the traders of raw liquor are in touch with the police.His affirmation is confirmed by the fact, that in one night , police arrested 30 people and recovered 271 liters of liquor and 350 liters of raw material. The action was taken by several police stations. Hundreds of illegal breweries were destroyed and dozens of smugglers fled the village. Clearly, this action was taken after the death due to poisonous alcohol, whereas it should be done continuously.
The administrative staff of Saharanpur is completely on backfoot after the incident. Meanwhile a sensational disclosure puts another question mark on the functioning of the police. Imran and Dhanapal of Umahi village of Nagal police station of Saharanpur claimed that they were complaining to the police continuously about raw liquor in the village. Some women also complained, but the police were not affected. 5 people have died in this village. Kotwal has been suspended from this police station. According to Nagal’s youth activist Shahvez Gada, if we have taken precaution then this should not have happened. It is was found that in more than 100 villages of Saharanpur, liquor packets were available for 30-30 rupees. According to sources, this liquor was being sold in Jabiran, Dalheeri, Shimlana, Ambheta Chand, Nakud’s Fatehpur Jute, Ranipur, Latifpur Nainauta in Arjunpur, Antara, Bhojpur of Badgaon.
Kaif from Saharanpur/Roorkee/Meerut