With the number of people who died allegedly after consuming spurious liquor in Bihar’s Bhojpur district touching 26 on Sunday, the Opposition parties stepped up their criticism of the NDA government’s liquor policy and encouragement of the liquor trade.
Rising public and political protests against the deaths, mostly of people belonging to the poorest mahadalit communities, led the police to carry out raids that, according to Bhojpur SP M.R. Nay-ak, so far led to the arrest of 22 people engaged in illegal liquor trade in the district. Dozens of men and women had fallen sick on Thursday night after drinking illegally fermented and sold country liquor.
LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who visited the site of the deaths at Anahit village near Ara in Bhojpur on Sunday, described the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP government as a “killer government”. He demanded that the government grant a compensation of `25 lakh for the kin of each dead person and a government job to each such family.
In Patna, RJD leaders and activists burned chief minister Nitish Kumar’s effigies and demanded a compensation of at least Rs 10 lakh to the kin of each dead person. “The tragedy is the result of the government’s anti-people priorities that has led it to promote liquor shops in the villages instead of libraries,” said RJD Rajya Sabha member Ramkripal Yadav.