A bill was today introduced in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly with a stringent provision of death penalty and life imprisonment for those dealing in illicit or spurious liquor.
If passed, then UP will be the third state after Delhi and Gujarat to have an Act under which bootleggers may be sent to the gallows, if consumption of spurious liquor leads to a loss of life.
The UP Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2017, piloted by the state's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna, will repeal the ordinance brought by the government in September in this regard.
The bill has the provision of death penalty, life sentence and a fine to the tune of Rs 10 lakhs and not less than Rs five lakh in case of death due to consumption of spurious liquor.
It also provides for rigorous imprisonment up to ten years and not less than six years in case of disability caused by consumption of spurious liquor and fine to the tune of Rs five lakhs and not less than Rs three lakh.
In September, the state government had promulgated an ordinance for amending the UP Excise Act with some cases of death and disability due to hooch being reported in the state.
Today's bill seeks to further strengthen the penal provisions to deal with those involved in illicit or spurious liquor.
Since the state legislature was not in session, and noticing the immediate nature of issue, the governor had approved the proposal passed by the UP Cabinet as an effort to stamp out the state's illicit liquor mafia and act as a deterrent.
Hooch tragedies take a heavy toll every year in Uttar Pradesh.
In July, 17 people died in Azamgarh after they consumed spurious liquor. In 2015, 28 people were killed in a similar incident in the Malihabad area of Lucknow.
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