KOZHIKODE, AUG 17: Kerala may witness a rash of spurious liquor deaths this Onam, the state's traditional harvest festival, unless the government takes preventive steps soon.Hooch has killed about 200 people here since 1981, apart from blinding and maiming many more. In most of these tragedies, the killer ingredient had invariably been methanol, or methyl alcohol.So devastating is methanol's effects and so well-known its misuse, that almost all states have restricted its possession, sale and use. The excise, police and drug control departments in Kerala were also empowered to prevent its sale after the Kerala Poison Rules (KPR) was passed in 1996.Yet, all these agencies are now legally helpless, even as this year's Onam - Kerala's peak hooch season - is just round the corner, due to a High Court stay of the operation of KPR 1996, on November 14 last. The stay was ordered after the All-Kerala Scientific and Surgical Dealers Association and three influential chemical dealers moved court, arguing that the new regulations went against those dealing in substances `officially' classified as poison. Methanol is also classified as a schedule-1 poison.Inexplicably, the government has been shying away from trying to get the stay order lifted. It has not filed the perfunctory counter petition as required, even after nine months.Such is the fallout of this amazing neglect that anyone can now stock, sell, transport or possess any quantity of this deadly stuff without a licence or a permit.Though there are no methanol manufacturers in the state now, informed sources say that large consignments of methyl alcohol, labelled as `industrial solvent' - one of its few legitimate uses - are being ferried in from the neighbouring states. Excise and Drug Control top brass, requesting anonymity, admitted there was nothing they could do about it, under the circumstances.Even the secretary (excise) had not been apprised about the actual implications, until this newspaper contacted him this week. ``I am a new man here and have not been briefed about it. But I will look into it immediately,'' said the secretary (excise) Mohan Das.The deputy commissioner (excise) here said he was yet to `officially' get a copy of the stay and orders from Thiruvananthapuram, but has already alerted his top brass. Only the state drug control department appeared to have been apprised of the stay soon after it came into force.
