The local administration’s efforts to control the production and sale of locally brewed moonshine have been ineffective in Rautahat district so far, according to the local police.

The District Police Office (DPO) in Rautahat has been seizing and destroying illegally produced hooch for the past one and a half decades, but the drive has done little to curb the production and demand for homemade liquor in the district.

Locals residents, mostly landless squatters and women from impoverished communities, are mostly involved in the production and sale of illegal hooch, police said. For them, this is their major source of income.

It is believed that a lack of effective monitoring mechanism and awareness among the locals are the major reasons behind the unchecked production of such illegal hooch.  

Superintendent of Police (SP) Bhupendra Khatri said that people in the district are involved in this business mainly due to poverty and a lack of awareness.

“Those who are involved in the production and sales of alcohol illegally do not know about the ill effects of consuming this form of liquor. Also, poverty drives them to this business,” said SP Khatri. He, however, claimed that the production, sale and consumption of home-brewed alcohol have gone down after police intensified their action to control it.

There is a huge demand for home-brewed alcohol in the area since people from poor economic backgrounds prefer to drink hooch because of its cheapness in comparison to other alcoholic drinks available in the market. Moreover, the demand for locally produced alcohol is reportedly soaring in the bordering Indian markets in recent times.

 Last week, security personnel raided a house belonging to Jagarnath Prasad in Garuda-7 and seized around 200 litres of alcohol and various tools and utensils required for the production of hooch. But police failed to nab the people involved in the production.

As per the data available at the DPO, police seized around 7,000 litres of home-brewed alcohol from across the district in a month’s time. It is estimated that alcohol is brewed illegally in about 500 places of the district. Bholantar, Epilighari, Arunbasti, Chandrani-gahapur, Maira, Nayabasti, among other settlements, are notorious for producing and selling illegally brewed alcohol in the district.