The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Maoists impose liquor ban in agency

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 21, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Maoists impose liquor ban in agency

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, OCT. 20. Even when their top leadership was engaged in talks with the State Government, the second-rung leadership of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) imposed a `total prohibition' in the agency tracts of the Eastern Ghats.

Sources said the Maoists went round several tribal hamlets in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts and asked the people not to consume liquor. Liquor traders were asked to stop selling liquor or face the consequences.

After floating a front organisation called "Adivasi Viplaba Mahila Sangham'' (AVMS), the naxalites held several `praja sadassus' to convey their decision on imposition of total prohibition.

``Though they have not claimed that the new outfit is floated by them, our sources say that it has been created by them with the involvement of several new women recruits,'' a police officer told The Hindu on Tuesday. After taking up the cause of coffee garden workers in the three districts and raising their voice against the practice of polygamy among Girijans, the AVMS took out a rally comprising 2,000 women at Darakonda, near Chintapalle, last week to enforce total prohibition. They also held meetings in Anantagiri and other areas.

A group of activists destroyed a liquor shop at Rintada recently and later went to Chintapalle to attack another shop.

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