The death toll has risen to 11 after people consumed suspected spurious liquor in Nagaland’s Tuensang district over the past week, officials said.
Preliminary enquiries revealed that all the deceased reported consuming alcohol prior to developing symptoms including blurred vision, severe headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. The tragedy has brought the state’s existing prohibition law into focus. The NLTP Act is a topic that often resurfaces for debate in the public domain regarding whether it should be given more teeth or be lifted altogether. The church’s stand Following the Tuensang tragedy, the church body issued a statement urging the state government to strengthen enforcement against illegal liquor sale to ensure the protective intent of the NLTP Act is not weakened in practice. Admitting that the prohibition law needed an ‘honest relook’, the church body maintained that whether the Act is retained, amended, or repealed, the ministry and prophetic responsibility of the church remain unchanged as its mission does not begin or end with a law. “This tragedy must not be allowed to pass as another unfortunate incident but must compel society and the government to pause, reflect, and ask difficult questions. The Tuensang tragedy came to public domain after the state’s director general of police (DGP) Rupin Sharma issued a red alert cautioning citizens across seven districts including Tuensang regarding a tainted batch of rum. Big hotels in Kohima and Dimapur owned by politicians serve liquor openly, the official pointed out. “Open interstate borders and the fact that Assam is not dry means that we cannot prosecute anyone from Assam or outside Nagaland – manufacturers, transporters, financers, stockists or warehouses in Assam side, even if we know that their stocks are for Nagaland primarily. None of these are a crime in Assam or beyond Nagaland boundaries.
Police confirmed that all the deaths occurred between September 10 and 12, after the patients were admitted to the district government hospital. officials said all 11 deceased reportedly consumed a particular brand of liquor from the same batch Although official substantiation is pending. The Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act 1989 has been in force since April 1990, prohibiting the possession, sale, consumption, manufacture, import, and export of liquor in the state.
health activists and anti-prohibitionists advocate doing away with the prohibition law, citing that the ban allows spurious liquor to enter the state through the black market, consequently affecting the health of consumers Although there are no official records of multiple deaths occurring due to consumption of the same batch of alcohol. the influential Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), which is essentially responsible for bringing about prohibition in the state, remains firm on the issue and continuously urges the state government to seriously implement the act While a large section of people believe prohibition was enacted with good intentions but strict implementation has failed due to a lack of commitment from the state government.
As of Saturday, Tuensang police said forensic confirmation is awaited as the report of samples sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) Guwahati is yet to arrive. “Laws are meaningful only when they are faithfully implemented and when the safety and dignity of human beings are placed above commercial or political interests,” the NBCC statement said. When profit is placed above human life, when illegal liquor finds its way into communities, and when known dangers are tolerated or overlooked, the consequences can be devastating,” it said. “The police giving advisory to citizens not to consume a particular make of liquor on suspicion that the content is spurious in a dry state like Nagaland is such an irony!” said a central government official who is posted in Kohima, asking anonymity. He further insinuated that liquor being supplied to people is a “known secret” in the state. Thus what we end up is addressing it locally and not the root causes,” DGP Sharma said.
Enforcement issues He further mentioned that unlike Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985 (NDPS) cases where manufacturing, financing or transporters can be caught beyond Nagaland, the same cannot be applied in the case of NLTP. the NBCC cautioned that its cooperation should not be mistaken for a compromise of conviction While assuring the church’s cooperation to the state government in strengthening the implementation of the Act. What the people are saying For Kohima-based health activist, Ketholelie, prohibition in Nagaland has become an issue of NBCC versus the state government. “Prohibition in the late 1980s might have been what the state needed and was brought about with good intentions, but it is evident that the Act has failed. In the backdrop of the Tuensang tragedy, the apex tribe body of the district- Chang Khulei Setshang’s vice president N Sipong Chang expressed concern that despite the NLTP Act, there is an increasing number of bootleggers in Tuensang district. The tribal leader also asserted that the state government should act swiftly- and come up with a strong decision that is best for the citizens. “In a nutshell, prohibition has failed in Nagaland.
The NBCC called for a thorough, impartial, and transparent investigation so that the truth may be established and those responsible are held accountable under the law. Due to prohibition, bootlegging, black market, syndicate system and spurious liquor have found their way into the state and are on the rise, making illegal liquor a lucrative business,” the health activist told HT. He said that most of the spurious distilleries and wine shops are located along the state’s porous border with neighbouring Assam, due to which, country wine and foreign made liquor are easily transported to Nagaland, including those from Manipur and Myanmar. Therefore the NBCC should not hold the people of Nagaland to ransom anymore,” the journalist said.
“Whether operating openly or through clandestine networks, every individual, bootlegger, supplier, distributor, or member of any illicit syndicate found to be involved must be held accountable under the law,” the church body added. He said the state government is refusing to take a “tough stand” on the matter due to pressure from the church body and the fear of losing “vote bank” during elections considering that the majority of the state’s population are Christians. “If the church body is committed and really concerned, then rather than pressuring the government to keep the prohibition in place, it should focus on holistic healing by setting up counseling and rehabilitation centers to help the people,” he added, pointing out that there are only a handful of rehabilitation facilities in the state. “There are nearly 200 shops in Tuensang that are illegally selling alcohol, indicating the failure of the Act,” he told HT. Senior journalist H Chishi said prohibition encouraged black marketing and spurious and illicit liquor business flourishes as proved in many states and countries, and the same is happening in Nagaland.
