India: Poisonous Alcohol Kills 85

Eighty-five people have died on tea estates in Assam, Hundreds more are sick; with many of them critical in north-east India after drinking tainted hooch. The tragedy took place on Thursday night in the district of Jorhat and Golaghat are about 180 miles (300km) from the state capital of Guwahati.
Assam’s health minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, confirmed on WhatsApp that 85 people had died but the final death toll may be higher as that figure relates only to hospital deaths and not any victims that may have died elsewhere. Sarma said he was notified about a new death almost every two minutes. He said another 200 people were in the hospital, many of them in critical condition. Doctors from other towns have been rushed to the area as hospitals have been struggling to deal with an influx of patients vomiting, suffering from stomach pains and having convulsions. About a dozen of the dead are women and many of them were tea plantation workers who had just received their wages. Local reports suggested the hooch a brew called “sulai” usually made with jaggery and ethyl alcohol was made by a 65-year-old woman in Golaghat, named by police as Dhraupadi Oran, and her 30-year-old son, Sanju Oran.
Men who cannot have enough money to buy licensed brands from government-controlled outlets because the prices are excessive refer to hooch, which is much cheaper. It is a very beneficial industry all over India as bootleggers pay no taxes and enjoy high demand. In 2011, 172 people died in a similar poisoning incident in West Bengal. Local media reported that six people were arrested and an inquiry had been ordered.
> Alma Siddiqua