Sakti: Illegal liquor business is flourishing due to police negligence, furnaces are burning in the camps of poor people

The business of making raw liquor from Mahua Lahan is going on on a large scale in the Sakti-Hasaud area. In many places including the districts, raw liquor is being made and sold openly in the camps of poor people. The police often conduct raids here but after a day or two the furnaces start again.

Although the government is lawfully growing the number of its liquor stores, a significant amount of liquor is still produced illegally. The villages of Arteri, Malda, Chisda, Hasaud, Pendri, and Bhatamhul, as well as other camps in the vicinity of the Hassaud police station, are home to the majority of cases of producing raw liquor. Additionally, distilleries within the homes along the riverbank produce alcohol. Neighbouring villages produce, package, and sell spirits. Let us inform you that many remote locations, including camps inside of homes, are used to make raw spirits.

This business continues to grow, presumably as a result of police negligence and a staffing shortage in the Excise Department. When there is a death due to alcohol or to meet the target, a campaign is launched for the sake of catching and destroying illegal and raw liquor, but as soon as the matter cools down, the monitoring of illegal liquor is relaxed. Due to this illegal liquor starts being manufactured again in every village.

Raw liquor is made by rotting Mahua Lahan, and Jaggery and adding Nausadaar to it. When Mahua or jaggery gets rotten, it is kept in a big vessel on the furnace to cook. Steam from the vessel is collected into the bottle through a tube. This steam turns into liquid form when it cools. To increase the intoxication of liquor, urea, oxytocin, besram are added to it, which is poisonous. According to doctors, alcohol becomes poisonous if the chemical is in excess or less, which can even kill.