More than 100 people have lost their lives after consumingspurious liquor supplied by the liquor mafia in Taran Taran, a district locatedin the Northern Province of Punjab. The irony is that since the corona virus’sinception in India (March 2020) 10 people have lost their lives to the socalled “virus with no present cure” in Taran Taran in the past 5 months whereas, a whopping 100people have lost their lives within a couple of days after consuming spuriousliquor.
Who started this mafia?
Who funds and controls it?
What has the government done about it?
Is this the first time this has happened in Punjab?
And many other important questions will be answered througha series of exclusive reports.
A family residing near Sachkhand Road in Taran Taran losttheir “sole breadwinner” Piara Singh, after he consumed spurious liquor. Peoplefound him lying dead in an open field the next morning. They say that when theyfound him, his body was as stiff as a plank. He has left behind a wife and twoyoung children. He had plans to marry his daughter this year but now his wifewho is a home maker says that she doesn’t know what she is going to do with herlife.
The cremation grounds on the Sachkhand Road were floodedwith bodies on the 1st of August. Usually cremation grounds havespace for up to 4 cremations at a single time but on Saturday, people had towait for their loved ones to be cremated. One of these people was a 10 year oldchild along with his 3 younger siblings aged 5, 4 and 2. His father died afterconsuming spurious liquor supplied by the liquor mafia and his mother, griefstricken, died from a heart attack the very same day. The 4 minor children havenow been orphaned. None of their relatives are ready to shelter them with oneof their paternal uncle’s saying- “I don’t have the time to attend the funeral(of his father) as I’m busy with the construction work that is presently goingat my residence”.
Another maternal relative also refused to shelter the griefstricken young ones by saying- “I’m barely making ends meet, how am I supposedto take care of these four? They’re on their own now!”
After their parents were cremated, their landlord kickedthem out and tossed their furniture on the streets. The 4 minor children whohad just started their life’s journey have been dealt with a massive jolt. Who is to blame? What has the governmentdone for them?
It had rained earlier that night and the ashes of the peoplewho were cremated that day washed away with the rain into the drains nearby.Their loved ones not only lost someone who was dear to their heart but didn’teven have the opportunity to collect their ashes! If this isn’t misfortune then what is?
200 meters away from the cremation grounds is the house ofanother unfortunate soul who lost her husband. She told us that after herhusband consumed the spurious liquor, his stomach started aching which wasfollowed by vomiting, loss of sight and eventually death. While speaking to usshe said that the local authorities tried to silence her voice by saying- “It’s no use revolting or complaining. As itis, you’re not going to get any compensation from the government. You might aswell mind your own business!”
Bodies were lying on the floor at the Taran Taran Civil Hospital.Some of them were kept outside the precincts of the hospital under the hot sunwith authorities asking them to “get their own ice” for the deceased. Bodieswere being mistreated left, right, and center and when the families of thedeceased tried to speak up against the disrespectful treatment of their beloved’smortal remains, doctors threatened to report them the authorities if theydidn’t “shut up”.
The authorities on the behest of the acting government didnot conduct any post mortem report of the people who died after consuming thepoisoned liquor fearing that the autopsy report would reveal it all!
A congress MLA’s P.A who goes by the name of “German” laterarrived at the civil hospital and threatened, manhandled, and slapped a coupleof people present at the hospital and asked them to call a cab and “get lost with the bodies”.
One woman who lost her husband said that German asked her totake her husband’s body back home and if she didn’t, he would “abduct thewoman”.
In the mortuary, more than 20 bodies were lying on top ofeach other on the floor due to insufficient space and lack of basic equipmentssuch as beds.
When the kin of the deceased requested the hospitalauthorities to provide them with an ambulance, they reportedly told them tomake their own arrangements as they didn’t have an extra ambulance and the onethat they had (just a single ambulance!) was being used for COVID patients.
This isn’t the first time people in Punjab have lost theirlives thanks to the “liquor mafia”. Similar instances were reported in 2003,2010, and 2012 but the government (like it has this time) decided to turn ablind eye to the incident.
Why you may ask?
Because the government along with dubious political leaders,police officers, prominent figures, gangsters and hooligans areall in on it. They are the ones who manufacture, fund, market and supply the“Illicit Liquor”.
The liquor war reportedly sold in small plastic carrier bagsat a rate of 20 rupees/-
The government reportedly earns 6-7 thousand crore rupeesfrom the liquor industry but such dubious and illegal activates tend decreaseits overall earnings.
For producing such spurious liquors, distilleries (owned byprominent figures/ leaders) in Punjab mix a whopping 11,300 liters of methyl to3,700 liters of alcohol to create 15 thousand liters of this deadly poison andsell it at the rates similar to your average “packet of wafers”.
They lure naïve people by claiming to provide them withsomething that is better than imported liquor and “pocket friendly” at the sametime. Little do these people know that it would turn out to be the final timethey’d get to “clink their glasses”.