The Assam Tea Tribes Students Association (ATTSA) and Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), Titabar unit will stage a huge protest here on March 2 against the “lackadaisical” attitude of the police in taking action against the manufacturers of molasses and Excise officials who have allegedly taken bribe from hooch makers.
In a press communique issued by Dhiraj Gowala, Assistant secretary, ATTSA and others, Jorhat Superintendent of Police has been criticised for not conducting a thorough investigation into the issue in which 62 people mostly belonging to the tea community here have died after consuming spurious liquor made from molasses and for making no arrests in this connection.
The communique questioned that if the police could take action on its own against manufacturers of RDX or TNT then why not against the corrupt Excise officials and the molasses manufacturers, most of who are non Assamese.
The communique further stated that it was a well known fact that hooch was manufactured with molasses and that hooch makers accessed molasses from Jorhat.
The communique criticised the police for not taking the matter seriously in which a total of 155 people had lost their lives in the two districts of Jorhat and Golaghat and six people going blind and more at risk of losing their sight due to consuming this toxic illegal liquor.