BJP protests in Punjab over hooch tragedy

The BJP members held protests in all the 117 assembly constituencies and raised slogans against the Congress-led dispensation, accusing the ruling party leaders of patronising the liquor mafia in the state. They sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation or a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court into the tragedy.

The BJP held a protest across Punjab on Monday against the state government over the recent hooch tragedy that claimed over 120 lives. The BJP members held protests in all the 117 assembly constituencies and raised slogans against the Congress-led dispensation, accusing the ruling party leaders of patronising the liquor mafia in the state.

They sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation or a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court into the tragedy. At a protest in Pathankot, Bharatiya Janata Party state president Ashwani Sharma blamed Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for the hooch tragedy and asked him to tender his resignation on moral grounds.

"The CM holds portfolios of excise and home," Sharma said, as he demanded a CBI probe into the matter. BJP secretary Tarun Chugh, who led the protest in Amritsar, alleged that the Congress leaders were involved in the supply of spurious liquor and also patronising the liquor mafia in the state.

"The government has so far failed to arrest the main accused in the tragedy. Only small-time bootleggers have just been held by the police," Chugh said. He pitched for a probe by the CBI or a sitting judge of the high court.

The spurious liquor tragedy in Punjab has killed 121 people in three districts. The maximum 92 fatalities were reported from Tarn Taran, followed by 15 in Amritsar and 14 at Batala in Gurdaspur. The BJP protesters rejected the magisterial probe ordered by the state government into the tragedy.

"We have no faith in the probe ordered by the state government," BJP leader Jeevan Gupta said in Ludhiana. "There can never be a fair investigation in a magisterial probe that has been ordered by the state government," he said.

Gupta demanded that the state government should give compensation of Rs 25 lakh each and a government job for one member of the family of the deceased in this tragedy. PTI CHS VSD HMB.