TN hooch tragedy: Kamal Haasan calls for psychiatric counseling of 'careless' victims

Chennai, June 23 (IANS) Superstar and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) leader Kamal Haasan met the victims of the illicit liquor case in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi on Sunday and sought to hold them responsible for their situation.  

The actor-turned-politician, interacting with reporters after meeting the victims, said that they have been "careless" with drinking. He said that the victims must understand that they have "exceeded their limits and have been careless” and that keeping oneself restrained is the need of the hour.

"They have to be careful and have to take care of their health. My request to the government is that they create psychiatric centres which will counsel them out of this," said the MNM chief, adding that drinking has to be "occasional and social, if at all."

Stressing on the consequences of drinking, he said: "They (victims) need to understand that everything in excess is bad, be it sugar or drinking. Specifically, drinking and driving, drinking and going to the office is bad, and soon it might make its way into the culture."

The hooch tragedy recently unfolded in Karunapuram village, a Dalit-dominated area in the Kallakurichi district of the state, where consumption of spurious liquor led to the deaths of 56 people while leaving as many as 200 hospitalised. The spate of deaths due to spurious liquor has also drawn the attention and wrath of the courts. The Madras High Court on Saturday came down on the M.K. Stalin-led DMK government over this incident and demanded a detailed report on the measures undertaken to curb the sale of illicit liquor in the state.

For the unversed, a similar tragedy occurred last year in the Velupuram district, claiming 22 lives. Earlier, on Sunday morning, BJP MP Sambit Patra slammed DMK and the INDIA bloc for not addressing the issue and termed the incident as a "state-sponsored murder." AIADMK chief K. Palaniswami, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, also lashed out at the state government's failure to contain the crisis and said that DMK had not "learnt its lesson".

--IANS

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