Workers and leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) organised a dharna at the party office in protest of the Aligarh hooch tragedy and demanded compensation to family members of the deceased in Lucknow on Wednesday.
State AAP chief Sabhajeet Singh said that more than 165 people have died after consuming spurious liquor which the victims purchased from government-run shops in Aligarh. “The government should lodge an FIR against excise officials and others responsible for the tragedy, pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the deceased and set up a high-level probe to unravel the murky facts,” he demanded. Singh pointed out that the Aligarh hooch tragedy was not a one-off incident reported from Uttar Pradesh. “In UP there are 11 districts where people have died after consuming hooch. Besides Aligarh, people have also died in Lucknow, Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Prayagraj, Bulandshahr, Mahoba and Chitrakoot,” he said.
The AAP leader said that in a damage control exercise, the government suspended some excise and police officials. “The suspension of these officials for laxity was not the action the public expected from the government. Instead an FIR should be lodged against erring officials to send out a strong message to prevent a repeat of such incidents,” he said. Earlier, senior AAP leaders and party workers took part in a token demonstration.
District chief Vaibhav Maheshwari and city chief Amit Srivastava alleged that the state government was covering up the wrongdoings and that AAP would launch a phase-wise agitation if the state government did not initiate any action against the erring officials in Aligarh hooch tragedy.