GUWAHATI/JORHAT: Death toll in the Assam hooch tragedy rose to 102 on Saturday, 36 hours since the first three deaths were reported in Golaghat and Jorhat districts. The state health department said 181 others are undergoing treatment in three hospitals.Twenty people were brought dead to Swahid Kushal Konwar Civil Hospital in Golaghat, while 27 others died after admission in the hospital. Several of the affected from Golaghat were taken to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH), about 40 km away, where the death toll is 51. Four others died at Titabor sub-division hospital.As the hooch tragedy toll keeps mounting, hospitals are running out of beds, doctors, medical staff and time to conduct autopsies. “Patients coming in after consuming spurious liquor should be admitted to the medicine department, which can accommodate 60 such patients,” JMCH superintendent Saurabh Borkotoki said. By Saturday evening, the hospital had received much more than its capacity. “We had to accommodate the rest in other departments,” Borkotoki added.Majority of the poisoning victims are tea garden workers, of which most come from a single tea estate in Golaghat district. Police have arrested 12 persons for selling spurious country liquor to the tea garden workers. The Golaghat district administration has also sealed two godowns of lali gur (liquid jaggery), the key ingredient of country liquor.Assam has more than 800 tea gardens and consumption of alcohol is a common practice among the workers. The tea tribe community has its own brew, haria, made from rice. The poisoned liquor that killed so many people is known as sulai, prepared from liquid jaggery. To increase the potency of the sulai, sandals (chappals), dry cell batteries and dried tobacco leaves are often added and the preparation done in a very unhygienic manner.Besides, cheap but dangerous methyl alcohol (methanol) is often used as an adulterant and authorities suspect it could have been used in this poisonous brew. Upon consumption, methanol becomes formic acid inside the body, which adversely affects the organs. A dose of 30 ml of methanol is fatal for human beings.CM Sarbananda Sonowal visited the patients at Jorhat hospital and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for next of kin of each of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for those who are being treated. “The guilty will not be spared,” he said. He has ordered stringent implementation of the ban on sale of illegal liquor and immediate medical assistance for those affected.Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who also visited all the hospitals where the people are being treated, said there are some patients who had consumed the liquor three to four days ago but developed complications later. “Some who had consumed liquor earlier are coming for treatment after hearing the news of the hooch tragedy out of fear. These people are psychologically in shock and think they are ill,” he added.Congress, meanwhile, accused the BJP government in Assam of not taking adequate steps to stop the sale of illicit liquor and demanded the resignation of state excise minister Parimal Suklabaidya. Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi has demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident and accused the BJP government in the Assam of not taking adequate steps to stop the sale of illicit liquor.(With inputs from Anup Dutta in Jorhat)

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