The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Liberate us from this disgrace’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 22, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Liberate us from this disgrace’

Anil Kumar Sastry

Adigara Kallahalli is infamous for its illicit liquor
It has been raided many times by the Excise Department

BANGALORE: “Do anything, sir, but please help us live with dignity,” were the words of Rahamat Khan (name changed), a resident of Adigara Kallahalli in Anekal taluk. A third-generation resident, he lives with the ignominy of being branded as coming from a village notorious for its hooch. And he wants the authorities to clean up the place. Unlike agricultural land in other places where crops are harvested from the surface, people of this village harvest a potent brew from beneath the land.

Well known

Adigara Kallahalli, bordering Tamil Nadu, has been infamous for illicit liquor for five decades, and Excise Department officials might have forgotten the number of raids they have conducted on this village.

Just a few kilometres away from the busy Bangalore-Hosur road, this village, with 400-odd houses, has been on the permanent list of raiding spots of the Excise Department. Mr. Khan confesses that the illicit brewers get prior information about the raids and flee when the excise personnel descend on the village.

Fertile soil

The land, with rich black soil, is fertile. “We used to grow vegetables and ragi. Availability of water has never been a problem,” says Mr. Khan. However, farming is hard work, and now practically all the people of the village have stopped cultivating their land. They have either let it out for brewing illicit liquor or have themselves plunged into the business. The arable land surrounding the village looks barren without crops on them. Moreover, with even the landless residents joining the illicit brewing trade lured by the fast income, it has been difficult to get agricultural labourers. Thus Mr. Khan now grows only a bit of ragi and has a coconut grove, which demand less labour.

So did lack of education and job opportunities push the villagers into the trade? Apparently not. The village has a higher primary school. Many residents have joined government service, including the Agriculture, Education and Police departments. Mr. Khan said the lure of making a fast buck was undeniable.

But did any resident protest or oppose the hooch trade? Certainly there were a few dissenting voices, including his own. But they were silenced by the muscle power of the mafia.

It was for the Government to deal with the situation with an iron hand to restore the dignity of the village and its residents, he said.

Attacks common

An official from the Revenue Department said government officials were wary of venturing into the village unless they were a large group. Even the distant sighting of a “khaki pant” attracted a hail of stones followed by direct physical attack. During the previous general elections, the polling staff were subjected to a brutal attack by the villagers, he said.

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