Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act of 1937 would be amended to make the punishment for those brewing illicit liquor and those bootlegging it more stringent as the present penalty for those crimes were not severe enough to be a deterrent, Chief Minister M K Stalin told the Assembly on Friday.
Making an intervention when PMK member G K Mani was speaking on the illicit liquor tragedy at Kallakurichi by alleging that the government had failed to curb the sales of hooch, Stalin said that in the past few days ever since the session started, the House had been discussing the issue again and again.
As far as he was concerned the punishment prescribed in the present law that was enacted in 1937 and amended subsequently was very light and hence the amendment would be made to the law by moving a necessary legislation in the House on Saturday, he said.
The Chief Minister was expected to make a statement on the hooch tragedy on Saturday, the last day of the present session, when he would be replying to the demands for grants for his departments. Now he had given the indication that the Prohibition Act itself would be amended to make penalties stringent.
Ever since the tragedy started unfolding on June 19, the opposition parties had been on their toes targeting the State government, which had been replying to the queries raised by the members on the issue on the floor of the House.
As the toll went up day by day, the government was put under severe pressure with the opposition AIADMK members staging a walkout on every day of the Assembly session after turning up in black shirts and disrupting the proceedings. After a few warnings, they were suspended.
Though the Assembly gave time for discussion on the issue, the AIADMK members wanted the abandonment of all other business to discuss only the tragedy on all the days they came to the House.
Outside the Assembly, the hooch tragedy that took a toll of 63 lives continued to resonate in the political arena in a subdued manner on Friday, the day after the AIADMK organized a protest demanding a CBI probe and the stepping down of the Chief Minister taking responsibility for the deaths, with only the DMDK calling on Governor R N Ravi at the Raj Bhavan.
DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijaykant, who met the Governor along with a party delegation, demanded a CBI inquiry, the Raj Bhavan announced through a message on X. Premalatha presented a memorandum expressing profound concern regarding the tragic fatalities from illicit liquor consumption in Kallakurichi, the message said.
In the past few days, besides Premalatha Vijaykanth, almost every political leader was in Kallakurichi meeting the victims’ families and consoling them.
