#CommonGround: The dark underbelly of Punjab’s liquor problem
Over the past two decades, officials say an illicit liquor trade has grown in the state in parallel with a boom in the liquor industry.
Read this week's piece, by @seekingsrishti.✍️
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This is the eighth installment of our in-depth reporting project called #CommonGround
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Hundreds of people took ill after drinking spurious alcohol in Punjab in July and August 2020. Tarn Taran was the worst hit.
The urgency of Punjab’s alcohol problem is under-recognised, @seekingsrishti reports
Read: scroll.in/article/100588…
Police implicated two brothers, but the illicit liquor trade runs deep in Punjab's political economy
The brothers were only two of several figures in the trade, many of whom remain untouched by agencies, an Amritsar-based cop told @seekingsrishti
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“Everybody from the police and excise officers to politicians are deeply involved in this business [liquor mafia]" alleged Anil Vinayak, an Amritsar-based social activist
Of the 16 distilleries in Punjab, at least 8 are connected to influential people
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In India, many different liquors have the same base Extra Neutral Alcohol. The same base spirit is sometimes smuggled to make hooch, as well as illicit batches of liquor under known brand labels.
“From Punjab, ENA is smuggled to states as far as Assam, Gujarat Bihar"
#CommonGround | “After all, the brothers are just the distributors of the illicit liquor. They do not manufacture it. The big fish are still out in the open."
Illicit liquor networks and their connections to Punjab's political economy | By @seekingsrishti
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#CommonGround | A month after the tragedy, Tarn Taran Congress president resigned, alleging that party leaders, civil and police administration were sheltering illicit liquor smugglers.
The Congress leadership, as well as the police, have denied this scroll.in/article/100588…`
#CommonGround | Punjab's illicit liquor trade
After the hooch tragedy, the police and the administration swung into action, visiting distilleries to inspect their stocks. But more than a year later, there have been no conviction
Read: scroll.in/article/100588…
#CommonGround: Within days of the hooch tragedy, two Congress Rajya Sabha MPs had criticised their own party, accusing the state government, then led by Amarinder Singh, of “clear-cut failure”.
@seekingsrishti reports. ✍️
Read: scroll.in/article/1005888
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