The village of Sangrampur in South 24-Parganas district, where the hooch tragedy last week killed 173 people, is just 69 km from Kolkata, but with agricultural yields diminishing and no sign of industry or infrastructure, most of the adults either work as daily migrant labourers or survive on the hooch trade, another sign of the socio-economic decline of West Bengal.

Villages like Magrahat, Sangrampur and Gocharan, which dot the outskirt of Kolkata right up to the Sundarbans, have turned into a hooch peddler?s paradise with these three being the key distribution centres in the state.

It?s not at all an unorganised industry ? the entire supply chain is streamlined into manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Two hooch dons Khora Badsah and Rabiwal Laskar control the entire business with both earning crores from the illicit liquor trade under the eyes of an in-the-pocket administration.

Till Joka, where IIM-C is located, on the Diamond Harbour Road there are signs of prosperity, but beyond that the ramshackle shops and their scanty shelves provide an indication of the spending power and the poor consumption capacity of the people. Even the road is in need of urgent repairs.

District magistrate of South 24 Paraganas Narayan Swarup Nigam said the entire district has a diverse character and there is no dominant economic activity. Economic activity varies in all the 28 blocks in the district with the northern part predominantly having a metropolitan character and the southern part gradually getting impoverished. He admitted that poverty played a role in the spread of the hooch business but claimed that almost all the poverty alleviation schemes are being implemented in the district.

Magrahat has a crowded market with clusters of tiny shops encroaching on the road. Hasibur Rahman Gain, in his 70s, pointed out that at least 60% of these shops were functioning as stock points of hooch. Hooch is sold in small pouch packs or in tiny PET bottles. Numerous rail hawkers carry it in their bags and supply it at various stations from where they are further distributed.

Another mode of distribution is big plastic jars. Generally the women folk, who work as domestic helps in various parts of Kolkata, carry it in the train despatching them at various stations en route, from where those are taken to hooch drinking spots or ?cholai theks?.

According to a police official, while the Ballygunge and Park Circus stations are mainly used to supply hooch to a large part of Kolkata, Dum Dum, Barrackpore, Naihati and Kanchrapara stations are mainly used to distribute it to large parts of North 24 Paraganas. While Gocharan in South 24 Paraganas is the manufacturing hub for parts of South 24 Parganas and Kolkata, Pailan is another manufacturing hub that supplies to the entire stretch of South 24 Parganas.

According to Abul Hossein Mollah, the business of hooch thrives in the district because of acute poverty. Almost the entire population in the southern part of South 24 Paraganas are either labourers, rickshaw pullers, railway hawkers or roadside stall owners. Some who go out of their villages to Kolkata every day work as masons, carpenters and tailors. So hooch helps support their income ? and they drink it as well.

Samina Sheikh of the district?s zila parishad said it was the country?s sixth most-populous district. ?But unfortunately the district is economically backward because neither agriculture has developed for lack of irrigation nor industries have come up,? he said, adding that there was only one DVC canal to support agriculture and it mostly remained dry.

Almost 90% of the population staying in Diamond Harbour-1 and 2 blocks, Magrahat and Mandirbazar blocks, under which comes Sangrampur and Magrahat villages fall are engaged as labourers in the unorganised sector. Though there were schools in every block, the rate of dropout is high as 68%.

At Sangrampur, all the buzz is around the market area. But just a two-to three-minute walk from the market is the village where there are little signs of agriculture. Sheikh Noor Mondal, owner of a tiny sweet shop said, there were 22 hooch drinking spots in this small market till the police cracked down on them last week. What?s more, many of the people who died could have perhaps been saved if there was a hospital or health centre close by. ?The nearest hospital at Diamond Harbour is 30 kms away,? said Mondal.