Punjab plans cheap liquor to avert hooch tragedies

When Bihar’s prohibition law is failing to avert hooch tragedies, Punjab’s Bhagwant Singh Mann government informed the Supreme Court that it plans to provide a “cheap variant of country liquor” as a healthy substitute to wean away people from illicit homemade liquor. The AAP-governed state’s excise and taxation department said this in an affidavit even as senior advocate Ajit Sinha informed a bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar that the police have also strengthened local-level intelligence to detect and destroy illegal liquor manufacturing ‘bhattis’ which have mushroomed over the years in the sensitive border state.