At least 41 Indian tea plantation workers have died from drinking toxic bootleg liquor after receiving their weekly wages, and 20 are critically ill in hospital, a government minister said on Friday. The deaths come less than two weeks after more than 100 people died after drinking tainted alcohol in northern India. At least seven women were among the dead at the plantation in the northeastern state of Assam, 310 km from the state capital, Guwahati. "So far 41 people have died after consuming spurious liquor," Assam Power Minister Tapan Gogoi said. Another 45 people have been hospitalised and 20 are in a critical state after nearly 100 people drank the liquor on Thursday, local lawmakers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said. Dilip Rajbnonshi, a doctor at the government hospital in Golaghat, said the deaths were due to "spurious country liquor". The deaths in the northeastern state of Assam came less than two weeks after tainted liquor killed about 100 people in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states. All of the latest victims worked at the Salmora tea estate in Assam's Golaghat district. Most of the patients complained of severe vomiting and stomach pain. "We tried our best but failed to save them," said Ganesh Bora, a senior doctor at the Jorhat Medical College hospital. They died within hours of consuming the bootleg alcohol. "They bought the country liquor from a seller and consumed it on Thursday night, falling ill almost straight away," Dhiraj Das, a senior Golaghat district official, said. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has ordered an inquiry. State police said they arrested one man over the liquor, and authorities said two excise department officials were suspended for failing to take adequate precautions over the sale of the alcohol. Earlier this month, about 100 people died in northern India after drinking homemade alcohol. Hundreds of mainly poor people die each year in the South Asian country from tainted liquor, which normally costs just a few US cents a bottle. Of the estimated five billion liters of alcohol drunk every year in India, around 40 percent is illegally produced, according to the International Spirits and Wine Association of India. — Agencies
