Hooch tragedy: BJD team visits Chikiti

Berhampur: A Biju Janata Dal (BJD) fact-finding team, led by its MLA and former minister Niranjan Pujari, former minister Usha Devi, former Berhampur MLA Bikram Panda and BJD Ganjam unit president and former MLA Ramesh Chandra Chau Patnaik on Thursday visited Chikiti and launched its data accumulation on the spurious hooch tragedy in Ganjam district.

The team met the family members of those who died and fell ill after consuming hooch at Jenapur and Karbalua in Chikiti. The members inquired about the health of the victims and the source of the hooch which they had consumed.

Family members of the victims claimed that the liquor was illicitly brewed in a forest near Bhalughai and sold in the nearby areas. Bootleggers mix pesticides and even battery powder with spurious liquor, sources said.

The BJD had been demanding a probe by the RDC into the incident and the resignation of the Excise Minister while pointing out that this was happening despite BJP’s manifesto which promised “Nisha Mukt Odisha” (intoxication-free Odisha). “During Naveen Patnaik regime, the BJD ministers, including Kalindi Behera and A U Singhdeo, had immediately resigned following hooch deaths,” they said.

The State government has announced that it will order a Revenue Divisional Commissioner-level (RDC) probe into Chikiti hooch tragedy and will submit a report in two months. But there is no RDC Southern Division in Berhampur since July 25. R S Gopalan was in additional charge of RDC here for three months from April 25 to July 25. However, the State government has notified the name of Roopa Roshan Sahoo as the new RDC Southern Division and she is yet to take charge. Roopa is at present Commissioner-cum-Secretary to ST and SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes department.

So far, eight persons, including a woman and manufacturer Surendra Mallick of Khemundi, have been arrested in connection with the hooch tragedy. Mallick allegedly has been selling illicit liquor in Patrapur and Digapahandi areas of Ganjam and some pockets of Nayagarh district for the last four years. He resumed the trade even after being arrested at least five times in the past. Of the accused, Baya Sahu was arrested for purchasing the toxic liquor from Mallick and then selling it in Moundpur village. It is suspected that the country liquor sold by Sahu was possibly laced with spurious substances, sources said.