Mumbai: Maharashtra Tribal Development
Minister Babanrao Pachpute has suggested that tribals
manufacture 'herbal liquor' from moha (bassia latifolia)
flowers as a source of livelihood.
The minister's suggestion is significant in the
backdrop of the state government's efforts to wean people away
from liquor due to rising alcoholism cases.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Tribal Development
Minister Babanrao Pachpute has suggested that tribals
manufacture 'herbal liquor' from moha (bassia latifolia)
flowers as a source of livelihood.
The minister's suggestion is significant in the
backdrop of the state government's efforts to wean people away
from liquor due to rising alcoholism cases.
The idea involves facilitating moha liquor
manufacturing by providing nets to tribals, collecting flowers
and selling bottled 'herbal liquor'.
Flowers of the moha or mahua tree yield liquor and its
fruit yield oil. There are around 3.45 crore moha trees in
Maharashtra, which can produce 50,000 tonnes of moha flower
and 20,000 seeds.
A Forest Minister till last month, Pachpute has worked
out the arithmetic of the herbal liquor making set-up. "Around
a kg of moha flowers can produce up to 350 ml of liquor and
fill a 750 ml standard liquor bottle when diluted," he said.
However, the idea has not gone down well with the
Opposition.
s
"Pachpute should come up with other ways for welfare
of tribals. For tribals, what matters is education and
checking malnutrition," Shiv Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe
said.
Pachpute, senior NCP leader, is not the only minister
to have come up with such an "out-of-the-box" concept.
In 2004, then Excise Minister Ganesh Naik, also from
the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, had said issuing country liquor shop
licences to bootleggers would help check bootlegging.
However, Pachpute does not want his idea to be
compared with that of Naik. "The model will really help
improve tribals' livelihood," he said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 09:47