Prayagraj: Joint teams of police and excise officials have been conducting a series of raids in fields deep in the trans-Ganga and Yamuna areas in a crackdown on hooch trade ahead of the festival of Holi and upcoming panchayat polls in the state.
The teams have seized illicit liquor and material in huge quantities and arrested around 200 people.
The agricultural fields are used to store raw material and to prepare illicit liquor by hooch manufacturers.
The police teams conducted raids recently in Soraon, Mauaima, Holagarh, Saidabad, Meja, Manda.
IG, Prayagraj range, K P Singh told TOI, “A massive drive has been launched in Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi and Fatehpur districts against mafia involved in illegal hooch trade.”
“Our joint teams have seized over 700 litre of spurious liquor and arrested over 200 people involved in the illicit manufacturing and trade in the past fortnight,” he added.
The teams also destroyed over 7,000 kg raw material and scores of furnaces during the drive.
The hooch traders dig pits in the field and hide raw materials and Lahan in them.
Officials of police and excise departments tightened the noose around hooch mafia after many casualties in Pratapgarh and Prayagraj due to consumption of spurious liquor and are maintaining strict vigil on 56 villages infamous for hooch manufacturing and trade.
A senior official preferring anonymity said some families in remote villages also engage in hooch trade in festive seasons and during elections. They also set up units on riverbanks for manufacturing spurious liquor.
Police teams are making efforts to win the trust of villagers for information to crack down on hooch mafia and a mass awareness campaign is underway in trans-Ganga and Yamuna pockets.
“Due to their greed for profits when demand is high, hooch manufactures use raw material like methanol which can be deadly and can cause blindness, severe burning in stomach and can be fatal,” said a senior excise official.
They also add zinc, carbon, rectified spirit and other harmful chemicals to make it strong, he added.
Usually, spurious liquor is made using jaggery, alum, ammonium chloride and essence.
Instead of ethyl alcohol, methanol is used to add punch to the country-made liquor which often proves fatal.
Methanol affects lungs, heart, eyes, liver and kidney. It also causes paralysis of muscles due to acidosis.