News Analysis India

Tag: Ujjain district

  • The case of country liquor and a farmer’s slippers

    Express News Service

    BHOPAL: ‘MP ajab hai, sabse gajab hai,’ the famous catchline of the Madhya Pradesh government’s efforts to harness the state’s enormous tourist potential could also be the apt punchline for two bizarre complaints that have come to the limelight in the Ujjain district of the central Indian state.

    While a vehicle parking lot operator has written to the state’s home minister, seeking action against a liquor vend for not getting the ‘kick’ after consuming Desi liquor, another man in the same Ujjain district has submitted a complaint to the police over the theft of his slippers worth Rs 180.

    A private car parking operator Lokendra Sothiya, who has been consuming liquor for the last 15-20 years, will move the consumer forum in Ujjain on Monday, over failing to get intoxicated by two ‘quarter’ bottles of Desi liquor, which he bought from licensed liquor vend in Kshirsagar Ghati area of Ujjain on April 12.

    Sothiya will carry to the consumer forum as evidence, the two sealed ‘quarter’ bottles of the liquor, which he didn’t open, after failing to get intoxicated after consuming two other bottles of the same liquor on April 12.

    Sothiya had bought four sealed ‘quarter’ bottles of Desi liquor from the liquor outlet to consume with friend Nirmal Chourasiya. But on consuming two bottles of the liquor, when he didn’t get the kick (intoxication), he went to the concerned liquor shop alleging that the bottles contained water and not liquor.

    “The liquor vend staff asked me to go away and dared me to do whatever I can against the vend, after which I complained the matter to the local excise department office and also sent its copy to the state’s home minister Narottam Mishra. I came to know that a team of excise department had visited the concerned liquor outlet and conducted an investigation on Saturday. But with no punitive action having been taken till now against the liquor outlet for selling water in name of the liquor, I’ll move the consumer forum in the matter on Monday,” Bahadurganj (Ujjain) resident  Sothiya told The New Indian Express on Sunday.

    The other bizarre complaint also pertains to Ujjain.

    The Khachrod police in the Ujjain district received a complaint on May 5, about the theft of a farmer’s slippers.

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    The farmer, Jitendra Bagri, a native of Tarod village alleged in the complaint, that his black slippers worth Rs 180 were stolen by someone from his house on May 4. He feared that the stolen slippers (which he bought a month back) could be used by the thief to frame him in a theft case after leaving them at some other place of theft in the future.

    The Khachrod police station in-charge Ravindra Yadav, acting on the matter, asked Ashok Katara, the sub-inspector in charge of the Chapakheda police outpost to take appropriate action on the complaint.

    While tippler Lokendra Sothiya still awaits action against the liquor outlet whose liquor failed to give him the high he was looking for, the small landholding farmer Jitendra Bagri, much to his surprise got his slipper back on Saturday.

    “I had just informed the police on May 5 about the possibility of my stolen slippers being used to commit some other theft and the thieves leaving them at the other place of theft to get me falsely implicated in the theft case. But much to my surprise, the cops from Chapakheda police chowki found the stolen slippers in a drain and handed over the slippers to me on Saturday,” Jitendra told TNIE on Sunday.

  • Vaccine resistance turns violent in MP as locals attack motivators

    Express News Service
    BHOPAL: Resistance to Covid vaccination in rural areas of Madhya Pradesh is now taking a violent turn.

    A team led by a woman tehsildar, which went to Malikhedi village of Ujjain district on Monday to motivate villagers for vaccination, was attacked by villagers belonging to the Pardi community. The Pardis have historically been involved in crimes in MP and adjoining Rajasthan.

    While the women tehsildar, the auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) and other team members escaped unhurt due to timely action by their car driver, their team member Shakil Mohammad Qureshi (who was the husband of local gram panchayat’s assistant secretary) sustained head injury in the attack.

    A video of the team escaping in their vehicle and the villagers attacking the panchayat assistant secretary’s husband went viral over social media subsequently.

    One of the team members said: “The team comprising woman tehsildar, ANM, Asha workers and the local Patwari had come to the village to remove myths pertaining about vaccination and motivate them for inoculation. While the tehsildar and other team members were talking to villagers, a crowd of over 50 men and youths armed with rods and swords came to the spot and started misbehaving with the team.”

    “Before we could understand anything, the villagers started attacking us. While the tehsildar and other team members managed to escape unhurt, I sustained head injury,” the injured man Shakil Mohammad Qureshi said.

    According to staff at Unhel police station of Ujjain district, a case has been registered against four men for the attack and attempts are underway to arrest them.

    Vaccination exercise is facing resistance, particularly in rural areas and tribal dominated districts and villages of MP. Two cases have so far been registered by police in tribal-dominated Alirajpur district for spreading rumours about vaccination exercise and also provoking commoners to oppose the exercise.

    According to a senior health department official in Indore district, a significant number of those getting the vaccine jabs at vaccination centers in rural areas, are actually those who live in the city, but are driving to village centers for the jabs, owing to lack of slots at crowded vaccination centers in the city.