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By Dharminder Singh Rataul
AMRITSAR: Despite the strictures from Election Commission of India and law enforcement agencies tightening noose around bootleggers, the election time is a booze-time in Punjab, heading for assembly elections polling on January 30. The liquor consumption is an interesting past time and homemade liquor distilleries are dotting the villages in Majha region. Hundreds of make-shift, clumsy-looking distilleries have cropped up in the entire rural-belt of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Patahnkot and Tarn Taran districts with the henchmen of political leaders asking their men to distil and store the liquor to woo voters as polling day draw nearer.
The practice, say the insiders, starts as soon as elections are announced and the illegally distilled liquor is stored in bottles and boxes in the earth or concealed in chaff rooms. ``The directions are usually made by political leaders to store liquor in huge quantity. No distillery can run without the patronage of the politicians’’, stated a villager running such an illegal distillery in Beas adding the police crackdown fears is writ large but still they have to fulfill the demands of the boozers.
Refusing to be identified, he says that the villagers prefer this country-made liquor to whiskey or wine. “Everyone demands ‘Ghar Dee Kaddi Sharab’ (home-made-liquor). No elections are complete without this practice”, says another villager in Ajnala, where such distilleries have been spotted in large number by the police authorities recently and cases registered. He further says that English liquors are expensive and as the demand is too high and only house made liquor could quench the ever-rising thirst of booze-lovers.
During the elections, the bootleggers crop up into the illegal business of making liquor as they expect a brisk trade. These men make contracts with the men of politicians and they sell the liquor in huge quantity to meet their demands, says Harjit Singh, a farmer leader. He said that the people do not fear even the police authorities who are on the prowl to check the menace of drugs and alcohol consumption during the elections times.
The worst is that the practice is not confined to any one political party’s leaders or workers but this is one point where they all are in total agreement to woo voters with booze. “The practice of wooing voters with the liquor is prevalent in all the political parties be it a small or big one”, says Harjit. It is a vicious cycle. “If my men refuse to provide liquor to a booze-lover, he will go to my rival and fetch the bottle in no time. Then he will be estranged with me forever and will never vote for my party’’, says one supporter of a political leader, requesting anonymity.
Another says the practice can never end as the rural folks cannot think of elections without liquors and though they are responsible for luring them, they are also sometimes helpless to end this menace. The Police authorities meanwhile say that they have recently confiscated a huge quantity of country made liquor and running stills had been captured. They said they are vigilant and will nab those who violate the law.
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