Bhograi: Even as liquor business proliferated in various parts of Bhograi in Balasore district, women Friday went on a rampage and destroyed several liquor shops in Dehudada and Huguli panchayats.
Wielding brooms and sticks, the irate women beat up liquor traders and drunken people who came their way and vandalised liquor shops.
According to reports, women associated with local SHGs Jay Maa Durga Anchalika Manch, Ma Gayatri, Sri Ganesh, Chandi Mata, Maa Shitala and Radha Krishna trooped onto Jaleswar-Chandaneswar road at Batagram.
They stormed into a dozen of country and foreign liquor shops along the road. The angry women took hold of about 2000 litres of liquor from the shops and set them afire on the road.
The anti-liquor brigade comprising Kabita Patra, Puspalata Mandal, Sita Bhuyan, Amita Das and Gelhi Paramanika stated that country and foreign liquor were flooding various parts of Bhograi.
The area has reported deaths of 10 people due to consumption of spurious liquor in the past, they said, adding, liquor menace has been on the rise in the area since 2005 after the government gave permission to open six country and foreign liquor shops.
Criminal activities are increasing in the area while social life of people has been in tatters due to the drinking binge among people. Atrocities on women have been rising, the women activists lamented.
They blamed the local police and excise officials for the flourishing liquor trade. PNN
