Farmers Movement Archive

Operating from canal banks, zero line, bootleggers in border belt keep cops on toes

Running illicit breweries on canal banks, village streets to isolated spots near the zero line, bootleggers in the border belt of south Malwa districts have been giving the police and the excise department officials a tough time. The business of manufacturing illicit liquor by villagers in the region is not new as it has been going on for the last several decades. Most of those into bootlegging, including women, are repeat offenders as they evade strict legal action due to the toothless Excise Act, say the officials.Every district in the region has villages that have earned the notoriety for distilling illicit liquor in bulk. In Fazilka district, Mahlam, Hindu Mal Kot (located on the line zero on Pakistan border) and Chananwala areas are among the most infamous for distilling liquor. Kattianwali in Muktsar district and Bathinda’s Bir Talab, Nathana and Talwandi Sabo areas are known for producing illicit liquor.Police officials say tracks between the Pakistan border and the Sutlej in Ferozepur district are commonly used to brew liquor.“Floodplains and small islands in the river areas along the international border have restricted access due to the Border Security Force (BSF) protocol. Thus they become haven for bootleggers. The brewers work in connivance with the corrupt low-rung cops,” says a senior police official.Another official said as authorised liquor vends are not available in some of the far-off places in the border belt, villagers prefer buying illicit liquor which comes at relatively cheap price.Besides, highly unhygienic ways are adopted to produce liquor.Fazilka senior superintendent of police (SSP) Harjit Singh said raiding Mahlama and two other villages is a weekly exercise as lahan (raw material used to manufacture liquor) in hundreds of liters is destroyed every month. Since it is a herculean task to store huge quantity of illicit liquor at the police stations, it is preferred to dismantle such unauthorised breweries with a stern warning to villagers, he said.“Villagers dig large pits outside their houses to brew liquor. In the last three months, we have seized and destroyed over 1.25 lakh liters of lahan at Mahlam alone. A section of villagers at Hindu Mal Kot have brewing units in the adjoining Rajasthan and we frequently make joint raid with the Sriganganagar police,” said the SSP.“There is no data on how illicit liquor gradually affects the health of consumers. It is easily available at villages but civil society activists, including those of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), who have a wide network of volunteers, have hardly ever raised the issue of unauthorised liquor to build a societal pressure on the administration and the government,” says a senior police official.Newly appointed Bathinda SSP Bhupinderjit Singh Virk said about 30 quintal lahan and 35,000 litre illicit liquor was recovered from about five identified villages in the last four days. “The list of habitual offenders is being prepared for further legal action. Illicit liquor is also a social nuisance and we are maintaining a close watch on the areas where people indulge in brewing and selling of hooch,” said Virk.

Hindustan Times

04-08-2020

City