Crackdown on hooch makers: Tribals allege harassment

Wanaparthy: The Excise department of Wanaparthy district on Wednesday seized illicit liquor from the possession of tribals in Pedda Gudem Thanda of the district. However, the Thanda dwellers allege that the excise officials are harassing innocent people who are not involved in the production and sale of Gudumba.

According to Venkatamma of Pedda Gudem Thanda, the Excise police have been harassing the poor tribals and raiding their houses in the middle of the night. “We have stopped the Gudumba business long back, but the Excise police are not heeding to our requests and harassing us frequently.

The police atrocities have increased in our village. They have particularly developed a grudge against our Thanda and are raiding our houses in the middle of the night. They are indiscriminately beating our people and pulling them out of their houses,” said Venkatamma, a victim of police atrocity from Pedda Gudem Thanda.

In fact, last year, the Excise department of the erstwhile Mahbubnagar declared the district as the first in the State to be free from Gudumba. The Excise department worked hard and employed a comprehensive strategy to eradicate the gudumba menace in the district. It booked lakhs of cases and fined thousands of violators.

The district administration as part of its strategy had announced rehabilitation measures and promised to provide alternative livelihood sources for those dependent on Gudumba. However, the government and the district administration could not fully accommodate all the Gudumba dependents with an alternative livelihood. Therefore, majority of the tribals, left with no other option have returned to their original livelihood source.

Fearing this, the Excise department in Wanaparthy has started conducting strict vigil raids on Thandas. “During the recent times there has been growing incidents of Gudumba manufacturing in Thandas. As part of the strategy to eradicate we are raiding the suspects and booking cases against them.

Recently we also conducted raids on Pedda Gudem and booked cases against the violators, but we are not physically harassing anyone,” clarified Narayana, Excise CI, Wanaparthy.

The Thanda dwellers and Tribals have submitted a representation to the State Human Rights commission against the excise officials atrocities. “Though the Excise police are doing a good job by cracking whip on Gudumba violators, but harassing the poor and innocent tribals merely suspecting them is not justified.

It has come to our notice that the police have misbehaved with the tribal women and badmouthed them and even beaten them physically. This is not tolerable and we will fight for their rights,” informed Gopal Nayak, a member LHPS.