CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today expressed grief and sorrow over the death of 20 persons after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in Majitha in Amritsar district.
Expressing condolences to the bereaved families, Warring urged the government to provide adequate compensation to the dependents.
At the same time, the PCC president demanded fixing responsibility over the deaths which, he remarked, were like cold-blooded murders of unsuspecting people.
He said, 16 people having consumed spurious liquor suggests that a huge quantity of it was being manufactured and those doing it were not even spotted, which sounds intriguing.
He observed, this is not possible without the knowledge and patronage of the authorities. He pointed out, the excise officials will not allow an unauthorized liquor shop to open anywhere, and here there was mass production of illicit liquor.
Warring reminded the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, that in 2020 when there was a similar hooch tragedy in Tarn Taran, he (Mann) had sought resignation of the excise minister and registration of murder charges against him.
The PCC president said, the guilty must be punished with exemplary punishment as they have played with the lives of people. He said, not only those who manufactured illicit liquor, but also those who patronized illicit liquor manufacturing must be held guilty.
He questioned the government’s claims of finishing the drugs in Punjab by May 31. “Not that we believed you that you can do that, but at least we did not expect that besides the drug over dose, people will also die from spurious liquor produced under the nose of your government”, he told the Aam Aadmi Party while blasting its claims of finishing drugs from the state by the month end.