Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh threatens to hang hooch traders too

Bhopal: After cow killers, hooch traders in Chhattisgarh have now come under the noose threat of chief minister Raman Singh.

A week after threatening to send the cow killers to gallows, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Thursday warned to hang the hooch traders in the state.

“Latka Kar Rakhdenge” (will hang them), chief minister Singh said while fielding a question from reporters during his “gram suraj Abhiyan”, an annual sojourn undertaken every summer by him in rural areas in the state to promote good governance, at Birda in Korba district on Thursday.

“I want to see the end of the “kochia” (people engaged in manufacturing and selling of illegal brews) system in Chhattisgarh for once and all. The hooch trade has to stop in the state. The “kochias” have to do away with their traditional illicit liquor business and adopt the milk trading,” he told reporters.

“The drunkards can buy liquor from government shops and enjoy drinks in their houses”, he said.

The Chhattisgarh government has earlier taken over the liquor trade in the state amidst growing demand for enforcing total prohibition, particularly by women. Lathi- wielding women were seen targeting liquor shops, now run by government, both in rural and urban areas.

The ongoing campaign for prohibition in Chhattisgarh is gradually turning into a mass movement forcing the state government to mull the step to announce complete ban of liquor sale in the state, barring tribal-dominated Bastar region.

“We are sending six official teams to different states including Bihar and Gujarat, where prohibition has been enforced, to study their liquor ban models”, sources in chief minister’s office in Chhattisgarh told this newspaper on Thursday.

Mr Singh had on April one sparked controversy by threatening to hang the cow killers in the state.