Chennai: Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi has sought a detailed report on the recent hooch deaths in Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts of the state. As many as 22 people have died after consuming poisonous liquor in the two districts over the last week.
According to sources in the Raj Bhavan, the Governor asked for the report on Wednesday. The hooch tragedy has rocked the state since the DMK government had claimed in this year's budget that the state has remained free of illicit liquor deaths in the last 14 years. With the National Crime Record Bureau data also attesting to this, the twin tragedy is seen as the failure of the administration. The opposition too has been using this as a handle to corner the ruling DMK.
With the Raj Bhavan and the elected Government at loggerheads and engaged in a bitter turf war, the governor had asked for a report. Recently, the governor debunking the Dravidian model of governance as a mere slogan to sustain an expired ideology had stirred up a hornet's nest with the Chief Minister giving a strong rebuttal.
Late on Sunday, the state woke up to the tragedy with the first deaths being reported near Madurantakam in Chengalpattu district adjoining Chennai and then at Ekkiyarkuppam, a fishing hamlet, in Villupuram district, where the toll was high. The latter is close to the border of the Union Territory of Puducherry. The affected are being treated at the Government Medical College Hospitals in Villupuram and Chengalpattu besides JIPMER in Puducherry.
Also read: Tamil Nadu hooch tragedy: Death toll rises to 22, NHRC notices state govt
While announcing a solatium of Rs 10 lakh for the victims and Rs 50,000 for those under treatment, the government initially committed a faux pas by including the prime accused who supplied the killer brew, mixed with methanol. After AIADMK general secretary and Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) pointed it out, the government removed the prime accused from the list of beneficiaries.
Chief Minister MK Stalin, after visiting the affected undergoing treatment at Villupuram, ordered that the case be shifted to the CB-CID police. Later, the Chengalpattu district SP was placed under suspension along with a few junior-level police officers. The state police too swung into action and arrested Ellian Nambi, a chemical engineer, the supplier of methanol, from Maduravoyal on the outskirts of Chennai late on Tuesday night.
According to police, he admitted supplying 600 litres in three barrels to an agent in Puducherry who in turn had sold it to those manufacturing the killer brew through sub-agents. Further, in a coordinated operation, the state police have registered 1842 cases and arrested 1558 in connection with the manufacture and sale of illicit liquor.
On Wednesday, Stalin held a high-level review meeting and directed the authorities to detain those engaged in the sale of drugs and illicit liquor under the Goondas Act and asked them to be proactive in dealing with such cases without any slackness. Meanwhile, the opposition AIADMK has demanded that Stalin should resign owning moral responsibility for the deaths and decided to meet the governor and urge him to direct the government to submit a memorandum alleging the free flow of illicit liquor across the state.
DMK Ministers have maintained that hooch deaths have been happening all along and turned the tables on the AIADMK, asking whether EPS had resigned over the Thoothukudi police firing on anti-Sterlite protestors.
