14 protesting Congress MLAs suspended; government orders inquiry into the deaths.
The hooch tragedy rocked the state assembly with the Opposition Congress shouting slogans against minister of state for home Amit Shah.
The party also demanded his resignation over the issue. Congress MLAs stalled the proceeding of the assembly and disrupted the question hour for the first 20 minutes.
Later they rushed to the well of the assembly and threw papers at the speaker, an act that earned 14 Congress MLAs suspension from the assembly. They were suspended by the speaker on finance minister Vaju Vala’s suggestion. Soon all Congress MLAs, including Leader of Opposition in the Shaktisinh Gohil, walked out of the house shouting slogans against Shah.
Shah made a statement under rule 44 of the assembly informing the house about the immediate public matter and the facts and primary action taken by the government after the incident in Ahmedabad. Shah informed the house that till 12.45 pm a total of 27 deaths were recorded all due to consumption of country-made liquor.
He further informed that chief minister Narendra Modi held a high level meeting with police officials of the state on Wednesday. Moreover, two police inspectors and one DySP have been suspended.
Later talking to the media Shah said that a total of four PIs and two DySPs were suspended. Shah also said that the state government has decided to form an inquiry commission to investigate the incident. He said the role of hospitals will also be checked.
The inquiry will be finished in a short time, he informed the house.
Siddharth Patel, MLA and state Congress president alleged that such incident happened due to the patronage given to bootleggers by corrupt police officials. He said that in September 2008 local resident had given a written complaint to the police, which clearly stated the name and address of bootleggers operating in the area.
“Instead of helping the residents, police threatened them,” said Patel.
Arjun Modhvadia, former Leader of Opposition and state Congress spokesperson alleged that today liquor is freely available in the state and the cops and government are busy making money, he said, adding that the government should hold the PI of a police station responsible if liquor is found from his jurisdiction.
Gohil further alleged that the government’s political bosses were running the whole illegal liquor network in the state through an additional DGP level officer. “The Ahmedabad incident happened due to the criminal negligence of government,” Gohil alleged.
From the BJP, only Pradipsinh Jadeja spoke on the issue.
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