Will offer country liquor as healthy substitute to illicit liquor: AAP’s Punjab govt tells SC

New Delhi, Dec 16: The Supreme Court has warned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab against the threat of a Bihar type hooch tragedy.

The Punjab government had asserted that it had already implemented all the court's directives to check the manufacture of illicit liquor in the state. The AAP government also informed the court that it had planned to introduce country liquor as a healthy substitute for illicit liquor.

"Have you seen Bihar today? This is precisely what we want to avoid," a Bench headed by Justice M R Shah said, while referring to the hooch tragedy in Bihar's Saran district in which 39 people were killed.

On December 5, the Supreme Court pulled up the Bhagwant Mann led government for its inaction against rampant production and sales of illicit liquor in Punjab. The court noted that the government is only filing cases, but is not taking further action and fixing the responsibility.

On Thursday, the Punjab government told the court that it had issued a circular which states that the local police officer will be held responsible if any illegal Bhattis manufacturing liquor is found. In addition to this awareness campaigns are being conducted to inform the people about the ill-effects caused by the consumption of illicit liquor. A reward of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh will be given to informers depending on the quantity of illicit liquor seized.

The government then went to say that as part of its new excise policy, it plans on providing country liquor having 40 per cent alcohol content as a healthy substitute to spurious liquor.

"This liquor will be a healthy substitute for illegally made homemade liquor. "The field officers have been tasked with providing their requirement of 40-degree country liquor based on ground inputs so that the same can be made accessible in illicit liquor-prone areas in the near future," the affidavit filed by the Punjab government in the Supreme Court read.

The matter will be heard next February 10.

The court was hearing a petition against a September 2020 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which disposed of a petition seeking transfer of some FIRs registered in Punjab with regard to the sale and inter-state smuggling of spurious liquor to the CBI. Following an assurance by the state, the High Court had dismissed the petition.

The petitioners who sought a CBI probe had referred to the August 2020 hooch tragedy in Punjab in which 112 people had died. The petitioners had sought stringent action against the liquor mafia which is running illegal Bhattis in Punjab.