Are village belt shops being run with the active support of locally elected representatives? The answer is ‘yes’ from sources in villages.
About a month ago, some irate villagers attacked six belt shops in Marepally in Kondapur mandal of Sangareddy district and they were arrested later by the police for the attack, based on the complaint of those running these shops. The accused were in remand for about two weeks before being released on bail.
Meesala Naveen, a resident of the village getting addicted to liquor and committing suicide, triggered the attack on belt shops. Villagers say that it was the fifth death in the village related to liquor in a span of three months.
Similar was the case of Swapna of Gangaram, a neighbouring village. Her husband died last year of ill-health due to excess consumption of liquor. These shops offer between ₹3,000 and ₹5,000 credit to addicts so that they can consume more.
The residents of several villages allege that the belt shops are running with the active knowledge of the local public representatives, who in turn look the other way as it generates unaccounted money to many.
“Belt shops are being auctioned in many villages like in Kangti mandal. Depending on the sales, the auction ranges between ₹2 lakh and ₹4 lakh. In the previous year, the auction of belt shop in our village was for ₹4 lakh,” said a villager from Mardi in Kangti mandal, on condition of anonymity. He says that part of the amount will be used for some development activity in the village while remaining amount will be for village elders.
“There is no such thing as targets for our department, but surely our revenues are increasing every year. Depending on the size of the village and consumption, there are belt shops, and we turn a blind eye towards them. The reason is - closing belt shops will allow free flow of illicit liquor. Some people are already addicted and we cannot change them now,” said an official of the Excise Department adding that auctioning of belt shops by village development committees is still common in some villages in erstwhile Nizamabad district. However, he was not aware of the same in Sangareddy district.
