Political slugfest continues over relief to Saran hooch victims' kin

PATNA: The political slugfest between the government and the opposition BJP continued over the payment of compensation to the kin of the Saran hooch victims despite differences among the ruling Grand Alliance partners over the issue.


More than 70 persons, mostly poor, are believed to have died due to consumption of suspected spurious liquor in Saran district in 'dry' Bihar.

While the Left parties, which support the Nitish Kumar government from outside, are in favour of financial relief to the hooch tragedy victims, CM Nitish Kumar's party, JD(U), parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday drew an analogy between deaths in manufacturing bombs and due to consuming liquor despite complete ban in the state.

His remarks invited sharp criticism from BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo).

"If somebody is manufacturing bombs illegally and gets killed during the blasts in the process, is the government responsible for that? Does it make the case for government compensation?" Kushwaha asked and said compensating the deceased in the hooch tragedy would amount to encouraging crime. He even termed the BJP's demand as "irresponsible".

'Many died due to lack of treatment'
But SuMo said the denial of compensation to the Saran victims' kin would be viewed as "discriminatory" as the state government had already granted such financial help to the families of liquor victims in the past.

"When the state government has already granted compensation to the families of 14 victims who died after consuming spurious liquor in Gopalganj's Khajurbani village in 2016 (shortly after the government enforced total liquor ban in the state), why can't it give similar treatment to the families of Saran hooch death victims?" SuMo said at a press conference and shared the copy of the government's earlier order in the Gopalganj hooch case.

According to him, the families of Khajurbani liquor death victims were given a compensation of Rs4 lakh each.

SuMo said even a dreaded criminal, if injured, is admitted to the hospital on humanitarian grounds. But in Saran, the victims of spurious liquor were allowed to die even as the chief minister declared "Jo Piyega, So Marega".

He alleged that many victims died since no treatment facility was available at the local primary health centre while several families hurriedly cremated their kin without postmortem out of fear of police torture.

He further accused the government of hiding the death figure, adding more than 1,000 persons have died from spurious liquor since April, 2016 when the total liquor ban was imposed in Bihar.

Grand Alliance partners such as the CPI(ML), CPI-M and HAM(S) of Jitan Ram Manjhi have been seeking compensation to the families of Saran liquor victims on humanitarian grounds. The CPI-ML has even sought for rehabilitation of the victims' families while asking the government to be "sensitive".