Anna Hazare helps Maharashtra govt form anti-liquor vigilante squads

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, May 11

The Maharashtra government has teamed up with social activist Anna Hazare to set up a vigilante squad called the Gram Rakshak Dal (GRD) to tackle the sale of illicit liquor in villages.

The first GRD will be set up in Hazare's village, Ralegan Siddhi, on June 15, according to state government sources. Hazare has been demanding such squads across Maharashtra to curb the problem of country liquor being brewed and sold illegally in villages.

Sources say that members of the GRD will be trained by Excise Department. “We will not allow members of the GRD to take the law into their own hands. They will have to work closely with the police and excise department officials to curb illegal brewing and sale of liquor in villages,” an excise department official said.

Members of the GRD will purely be a volunteer force and will be provided training at workshops that will be organized in collaboration with various NGOs, excise department officials said.

Sources say that the government will not pay its members of the GRD and they will purely act as a volunteer force.

The move has already drawn criticism from the opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party who fear that the GRD will soon degenerate into gangs of extortionists like Gau Rakshaks in North India.