TIRUPATI: Menfolk of Pedda Harijanawada and Chinna Harijanawada hamlets near Karvetinagaram have given up brewing, selling and consumption of Illicitly Distilled liquor, thanks to the sustained campaign of women against the perennial menace of bootlegging. As part of their campaign, the women have turned informers to excise and police officials about bootlegging in their hamlets.
“Though police had tried hard to educate the villagers on the harmful effects of manufacturing and consuming ID liquor for the past one-and-a-half-year, all our efforts have proved futile as none of menfolk came forward to give up manufacturing ID liquor,” Karvetinagaram CI Chandrasekhar told TNIE.
About six months ago, a group of women from the two hamlets staged a protest at the police station lamenting how the health of their menfolk was affected due to consumption of ID liquor. They demanded that bootlegging in the two villages be curbed with an iron hand.
Responding to the protest, the police had intensified raids on ID liquor manufacturing units in the two hamlets. As many as 22 villagers engaged in bootlegging were bound over and a total of eight cases were booked against them. The raids have slowly started yielding results, the CI said.
Harijanawada sarpanch Varma Raju said, “Women have played a key role and succeeded in eradicating the ID liquor menace. The increase in police raids have prompted 90% of ID liquor manufacturers to give up bootlegging.”
On Sunday, the villagers invited the police to organise a meeting under Operation Parivartana 2.0 to mark the World Environment Day, where they expressed their gratitude to cops for eradicating bootlegging menace. The meeting was attended by Special Enforcement Bureau Joint Director Avula Ramesh Reddy and Chittoor SP Y Rishanth Reddy, who planted saplings in the hamlets.
The SP promised to construct a library in the village, while the Joint Director of SEB came forward to donate Rs 50,000 for purchase of books. Later, Ramesh Reddy distributed cricket kits, chess, carrom boards and other play material to children of the hamlets.