Tribal youths paraded with shoe garlands for ignoring panchayat diktat on liquor ban in MP

Ranjeet Gupta

NewsBits.in

SHIVPURI: In a shocking incident, three tribal youths were tonsured, made to wear shoe garland and paraded in the village for ignoring to the diktat of the local panchayat on liquor prohibition.

The youths also failed to pay Rs 11,000 fine each as ordered by the panchayat, sources said.

Sources said that the incident occurred at Khairah village in Badarwas of Shivpuri on Monday. The village panchayat had a day ago held a meeting and decided to clamp total ban on liquor consumption. If anyone was found drunk, a fine of Rs 11,000 would be imposed, it was decided.

On Monday, three tribal youths Vikram, Kotu and Satish were caught by the villagers in an inebriated condition. They also failed to pay the decided fine for obvious reasons. So the youths were tonsured, made to wear footwear garlands and were paraded in the village with a band accompaniment.

Sources also said that the district police and NGO Ekta Parishad were conducting separate prohibition campaigns in the district to discourage the tribal people from liquor consumption. Though some villagers claimed that the Sunday panchayat at Badarwas was conducted under aegis of Ekta Parishad, the district convener has strongly denied holding any such meeting in the reported village.

The district convener of the Ekta Parishad Ramprakash Sharma has strongly condemned the incident saying it was wrong to take any such action.

There have been also claims that the liquor mafia might be behind the incident to negatively publicise the prohibition campaign. Interestingly, Khairah is the home village of Shivpuri district president of BJP – Sunil Raghuvanshi.

No police complaint has been lodged in the matter yet, but the Shivpuri superintendent of police Sunil Kumar Pande has said that if such incident has occurred then it is not right and he would get the matter inquired into.