Chennai

Expressingserious concern over the findings of the Justice P Gokuldas Commission report on the 2024 Kallakurichi hooch tragedy, TNCC president Manickam Tagore, on Wednesday urged Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to take stern action against negligent officials and investigate whether the illicit liquor business had any political patronage.

In a statement, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief highlighted the findings of the inquiry commission, which investigated the deaths of 70 people after they consumed illicit liquor in Kallakurichi between June 17 and June 20, 2024.

He said the commission’s report, recently tabled in the Legislative Assembly, concluded that the tragedy was primarily caused by the failure of officials to discharge their duties properly.

According to the report, which was prepared after the commission examined 433 people in connection with the illicit liquor trade, the failure of successive governments to effectively implement the prohibition policy since 1971 had contributed to widespread alcohol addiction, he said.

“The substantial price difference between legal TASMAC liquor and illicit brew forced poor and vulnerable sections to turn to cheap bootleg alcohol, resulting in the loss of many lives,” he claimed. On the commission’s welfare recommendations, Tagore noted that while the previous government had provided Rs 10 lakh in compensation to the families of the victims, the state government must now extend humanitarian assistance to children who lost their fathers.

He urgedthe government to provide these children with food, housing, educational assistance and government jobs. Tagore emphasised that long-term social relief for the people of Tamil Nadu could be achieved only by swiftly freeing the state from the grip of alcohol addiction.