Pouches under police eyes

new delhi: illegal liquor sales continued unabated in the capital on wednesday despite an alert sounded by government agencies after the hooch tragedy in uttar pradesh which claimed 44 lives this week. even after police commissioner ajai raj sharma sent a strong message to deputy commissioners of police to crack down on illegal liquor vends, bootleggers operating from slums managed to do brisk business.``they were, however, wary of selling liquor before sunset fearing police raids," said chet ram, a habitual drinker who buys liquor from yamuna pushta. on wednesday, he got his daily quota almost an hour later than normal, he said. however, following the crackdown, vendors have hiked prices. ``this is because the risk is higher," said mangat, a small-time bootlegger operating out of slums near the police headquarters at ito. illegal liquor was also freely available at malviya nagar, sangam vihar, okhla, srinivaspuri, ambedkar nagar, lajpat nagar, gandhi nagar, khichripur, raghuvarpur number 1, surya nagar, majnu ka tila, mongolpuri, jahangirpuri and maharajpur. ``liquor pouches are the main source of livelihood for most families in slum clusters in these areas," said mangat. according to him, most bootleggers in the capital do not brew spurious liquor. it is obtained from regular breweries in neighbouring uttar pradesh and rajasthan. a 180 ml pouch of illegal country liquor, costing about rs 10, is retailed at rs 25-rs 30 here. some of the popular local brands are mastana, rasbhari, tohfa, shaukeen and apsara. pouches of illegal imfl (indian made foreign liquor) cost around rs 45. adulteration is a common practice among the capital''s bootleggers. after procuring illegal liquor, the vendors dilute it using water and drugs. this task of dilution is usually assigned to women, who also double up as salespersons. ``earlier, some paanwallahs used to stock liquor pouches. these pouches were generally of good quality. but following police raids, many shopkeepers appear to have discontinued the practice," said chet ram.