On January 17, at Marepally village in Kondapur mandal of Sangareddy district one Meesala Naveen, of the village, ended his life as he could not get money for liquor. He was addicted to liquor being sold at a belt shop in the village. Another four villagers, who had become addicted to liquor, had died in the past few months.
Angered by the rising addiction to liquor and death of their own people, villagers, especially women from Dalit community, on the next day attacked the shops, selling liquor without licence (belt shops), and damaged liquor bottles.
Based on the complaint lodged by the owners of the belt shops, police registered a case against 19 persons and sent 13 of them to remand, including four women, on January 24.
On January 19, the village panchayat passed a resolution against sale of liquor in the village with an announcement that action would be taken against those who sell liquor.
“My mother’s name is Mariyamma. Recently one Naveen of the village ended his life and he left behind two small children. Angered by this, she along with others raided the belt shops. The police have arrested her and she is in jail for last 10 days,” Kishore, a young boy from the village, informed.
“As many as six belt shops are running in our village. Five persons died in the village due to addiction to liquor and our repeated appeals failed to make them close the shops. Even youth are getting addicted. Those running belt shops are P. Ashok Goud, G. Chennam Goud, N. Lakshmaiah, K. Raju, G. Manaiah and P. Raju,” said the villagers in the complaint lodged with Kondapur police on January 22.
Now the liquor addiction, deaths, police acting only on complaints lodged by the belt shop owners and not taking action on the complaint lodged by the villagers is turning into a major political issue in the district. Congress MLA from Sangareddy T. Jayaprakash Reddy visited Marepally village on Monday and assured required support to the families. He said that all efforts would be put in place to get the arrested villagers released on bail.
A team of BJP leaders, including A. Chandrasekhar, K Srisailam Goud, Chinta Sambamurthy and others, visited the village and interacted with the victims. Similarly a Congress delegation led by Addanki Dayakar has also visited the village.
On Tuesday, activists of both the BJP and the CPI(M) held dharna before Collectorate at Sangareddy and submitted a memorandum to the officials.
“Take action against those running belt shops in the village and register cases. Pay a compensation of ₹25 lakh to the families of five persons who died due to liquor. Withdraw cases on those who attacked belt shops in the village,” CPI(M) district secretary G. Jayaraj demanded in the memorandum submitted to Additional Collector Rajarshi Shah.
