Rs 2 lakh compensation for hooch victims
- November 08, 2020
- Updated: 01:00 am
DW BUREAU / Chandigarh
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of those who died after consuming adulterated liquor. Khattar said strict action will be taken by the state government against the officers, employees, contractors and liquor mafia involved in the illegal sale of liquor in the state, an official statement said. At least 31 people died in Haryana's Sonipat and Panipat in the past few days after allegedly consuming suspected spurious liquor.Khattar expressed grief and extending his condolences to the families of the deceased, the statement said, adding that the financial aid will be given from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund. The chief minister said that the police have made an arrest in the case and directions have been issued to officials asking them to bust the network.
The Opposition parties in Haryana on Friday sought a CBI probe into alleged smuggling of liquor in the state. Drawing attention of the House on the concluding day of the Haryana Assembly session towards the alleged smuggling of liquor in Kharkhoda in Sonipat and Samalkha of Panipat and Fatehabad during the lockdown period, INLD MLA Abhay Singh Chautala, Congress MLAs Jagbir Malik, B B Batra and some other legislators slammed the government over the issue. Chautala alleged that the state government had failed to check the liquor mafia in the state, which he alleged, could not operate without the protection of the government.Congress MLA Kiran Choudhary too slammed the government for not acting on the issue. Both Chautala and Choudhary demanded a CBI probe into the matter. According to the legislators, around 10,000 cases of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and other liquor bottles were found missing during the first week of May from a godown in Kharkhoda in Sonipat.
They said similar incidents were also reported from Samalakha in Panipat and Fatehabad and Yamuna Nagar, Rewari, and Narnaul. According to the calling attention notice, the excise department officials had issued 426 permits for COVID-19 passes for the movement of trucks on March 26, a day after the department sealed all the liquor vends and godowns.
(editor@dailyworld.in)