KAKINADA: The efforts of the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) to make Godavari island villages ID liquor-free have started yielding results. Velicheru in Atreyapuram mandal of Konaseema district has become completely ID liquor-free. In all, 32 bootleggers have been bound over. SEB teams inspect the island villages on a daily basis.
As part of the efforts to make the villages ID liquor-free, the SEB has conducted awareness programmes in Velicheru, Rajavaram, Peravaram and Bobbarlanka, besides registering cases against bootleggers during raids. People of the island villages are mainly dependent on loading sand into boats. With the deployment of heavy machinery for loading, many of them were rendered jobless and they switched over to bootlegging.
After finding out the root cause of bootlegging, Kothapeta SEB Inspector Addala Srinivasa Rao and Sub-Inspector Adabala Sateesh have taken up a campaign under Operation Parivarthana to reform the villagers indulged in manufacturing of illicit liquor.
Following a series of counselling sessions, the villagers engaged in manufacturing ID liquor, have given up bootlegging. The village sarpanch, MPTC member and local leaders have also extended their support to the SEB in bringing about a social change.
Participating in an awareness programme organised under Operation Parivarthana in Velicheru on Saturday, Additional SP Latha Madhuri appreciated the villagers’ gesturing of shunning bootlegging. On the occasion, villagers took a pledge to give up manufacturing ID liquor in the presence of the sarpanch.