Govt to arrange alternate livelihood to hooch sellers

In the wake of latest hooch tragedy,Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said the government is lanning to launch a social scheme for those who are involved in sale of illicit liquor. Talking to mediapersons after chairing a meeting of all the district magistrates and SPs in the state,which was also attended by excise secretary and the excise commissioner,Banerjee said: “Things like illicit liquor are a malady for the society and we as a whole will have to fight them. We are working on a social security scheme in which we will try to give an alternative livelihood to those who sell hooch.”

The government is also planning to set up disaster management groups in every district to tackle such tragedy in future. “We are making (existing excise) laws more stringent. At present,flouting this law entails one-year jail sentence. But something has to be done about this,’’ she added.