Compensation to Saran hooch tragedy victims' kin after recovery process: Nitish

Patna, Dec 21 (IANS) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said that there is a provision of compensation to the family members of those who died in hooch tragedy but it is not directly from the government.

"If you see the act, no direct compensation is mentioned in the rule book. In case of hooch tragedy, the state government first recovers the money from the accused who sold the spurious liquor and then compensates the family members of the victims," he said.

Nitish Kumar also put a question mark on the investigation of Chapra hooch tragedy by the National Human Right Commission (NHRC).

"Bihar has lesser numbers of liquor deaths as compared to other states but the NHRC came to Chapra for the investigation. Why it would not go to other states? I can't understand what they would find in Chapra. We are already investigating the incident," he said.

"The opposition leaders are unnecessarily making hue and cry over this incident. When liquor was banned in Bihar in April 2016, the BJP supported it. It is a matter of investigation whether they are involved in it or not. When the BJP was sharing power with us some four months ago, liquor tragedies had happened in Bihar but they would not oppose it then," he said.

"If anyone drinks dirty and spurious liquor like this, they would die. It should be advertised more and more to make people aware that liquor is not a good thing. People are dying due to spurious liquor in other states of the country, why NHRC is investigating only in Bihar?" Nitish Kumar asked.

Meanwhile, the second team of the NHRC headed by DG Manoj Kumar Yadav reached Patna on Wednesday. The team has visited some of the areas in Patna including Asopur village under Danapur police station. Sources have said that liquor openly sells here on the road.

The NHRC team also went to Saran and Siwan to meet the victims who survived in a hooch tragedy.

State BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal said: "The Nitish Kumar is hiding the actual numbers of deaths in the Saran liquor tragedy. Hence, NHRC came here for the investigation. The actual deaths are more than 100."

Meanwhile, Saran's Civil Surgeon Dr Sagar Dulal Sinha said that 42 persons died in the district due to hooch tragedy. "The post-mortem examination of 34 dead bodies wasconducted in Chapra Sadar hospital while the autopsy of 8 dead bodies was done in PMCH Patna."