GUWAHATI - 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's
financial capital, Guwahati.
"So far 41 people have died after consuming spurious
liquor," Assam Power Minister Tapan Gogoi told Reuters by
telephone.
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
told Reuters.
Dilip Rajbnonshi, a doctor at the government hospital in
Golaghat, said the deaths were due to "spurious country liquor".
Deaths from illegally produced alcohol, known locally as
hooch or country liquor, are common in India, where many cannot
afford branded spirits.