VIJAYAWADA: The TDP lawmakers wrote separate letters to the Assembly Speaker and the Council Chairman, urging for a detailed debate on hazardous chemicals and liquor deaths. They submitted lab reports, which showed how ‘J-brands’ were creating serious health hazards in people leading to oral, dermal and other bodily complications.
The TDP MLCs said the cheap liquor brands available in the State contain toxic chemicals like volkenin, pyrogallol, benzoquinone, scoparone, caprolactam and dimethoxycinnamic acid. For example, Celebrity brandy contains volkenin, which causes chronic toxicity, mental confusion and also death due to cyanide poisoning, they observed.
Expressing concern, the TDP legislators said deep chemical analysis reports gave shocking results on five J-brands - Green Choice, Celebrity, Royal Simha, Champion and Old Timer. “A social activist got the analysis done at Chennai-based SGS India lab. These five J-brands were found to be containing volkenin, pyrogallol, benzoquinone, scoparone, caprolactam and dimethoxycinnamic acid.”
The TDP MLCs and MLAs termed it shocking that the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) filed 1,129 cases and arrested 677 persons in raids held for just five days from March 10 to 14. “These raids were conducted only after the TDP stuck to its demand for debate on liquor deaths. The TDP is ready to prove that J-brands and illicit liquor caused the death of innocent people and destroyed their families,” they asserted.
The TDP MLCs advised the chief minister to resign and “own moral responsibility for the death of hundreds of innocent people”.
The TDP legislators said as per lab reports, the toxins in J-brands cause irritation, drop in blood pressure, rapid respiration, rapid pulse, dizziness, headache, stomach pains, vomiting, diarrhoea, twitching and convulsions. Some chemicals cause cough, sore throat, skin redness, eye redness and pain, they added.
Earlier, the TDP MLCs and MLAs led by Nara Lokesh, took out a rally outside the Assembly in protest against the government’s ‘refusal’ to order a judicial probe into ‘hazardous’ cheap liquor brands.