Hooch tragedy: BJP to stage dharna against Bihar govt on Assembly premises

Opposition in Bihar has been demanding compensation for the family members of the deceased, however, Nitish categorically denied giving any compensation during his speech at the winter session of the Bihar legislature, which concluded on Monday, writes Amit Bhelari of ETV Bharat.

Patna:Chapra hooch tragedy continues to create political turmoil in the state as the opposition sharpens their attack against the ruling government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. As per official figures shared by the state government only 38 people have died, however, the ground reports claimed over 70 lives in the hooch tragedy.

Opposition in Bihar has been demanding compensation for the family members of the deceased, however, Nitish categorically denied giving any compensation during his speech at the winter session of the Bihar legislature, which concluded on Monday. After that leader of the opposition in the Bihar Assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha, on Tuesday announced to stage a dharna against the government on December 21 on the Assembly premises.

“The government is not conducting any judicial inquiry nor giving compensation to the family members of the deceased. We are going to raise the issue and stage a dharna on the assembly precincts on Wednesday, along with all the MLAs. The government does not have any humanity towards the poor and they are also hiding the number of deaths. In the name of the liquor ban, a parallel black economy has been established in Bihar. Law and order have already collapsed. The government in power is getting the benefit of prohibition through the liquor mafia,” Sinha told ETV Bharat.

The BJP workers staged a mock funeral procession of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar demanding compensation to the kin of the deceased. The BJP workers took out the procession from the JD (U) office at Beerchand Patel Path. Patna Sahib MP and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also raised the issue in the Lok Sabha demanding compensation to the families of the deceased. Prasad said that despite the liquor ban, the liquor trade cannot be done on such a large scale without the connivance of the police.

Prasad further said in the Lok Sabha that most of the people, who died are the poor, Dalit, backward and extremely backwards-class people. He also claimed that many were cremated in haste without post-mortem and without keeping the viscera safe calling it a violation of human rights.
Ten members of the NHRC reached Patna and left for Chapra in the Saran district from the airport itself. None of the NHRC members spoke a word when the media asked about the purpose of their visit. JD (U) and RJD leaders raised questions on the visit of NHRC alleging that the visit is politically motivated.

“There is no problem if NHRC teams visit Bihar, but at the same time, they should also visit Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat where such incidents have taken place. However, the NHRC team is only visiting Bihar, which proves that it is a politically motivated visit,” JD (U) Parliamentary Board chairman Upendra Kushwaha told ETV Bharat.

RJD spokesperson Chittaranjan Gagan alleged that like other autonomous institutions of the Centre, the NHRC has now also become "selective". “Its attention does not go to those states where BJP is in government or BJP is involved in the government. Issuing notice to the Bihar government by the NHRC on the unfortunate deaths in Bihar due to the consumption of spurious liquor is not only against its constitutional nature, but also establishes it as an agency of the BJP. In Gujarat's Rajkot 57 people have died after drinking spurious liquor. Similarly, 1,214 people died in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, 909 in Karnataka, 476 in Haryana, 291 in Uttar Pradesh but no cognizance was taken by the NHRC,” Gagan said.