Chandigarh, May 14 -- Since 2020, Punjab has witnessed the deaths of over 170 individuals due to spurious liquor but it seems no lessons have been learnt by the authorities. On Tuesday, at least 21 people, mostly daily wagers, died and several others were hospitalised in Majitha. Ten people, including the alleged kingpin, have been arrested. A year ago, 20 people lost their lives in a hooch tragedy in Sangrur. Here too the spurious liquor was made using methanol as a base and was manufactured locally. Over the years, various probes and findings suggested course corrections but most of the reports have been consigned to the dustbin with the state administration only getting active after a tragedy. In Sangrur's case, a fact-finding team comprising local officers conducted a probe and submitted a report. The probe committee, headed by the Dirba SDM with the DSP, SHO, senior medical officer and an excise and taxation officer as its members, had studied the reason behind thriving illegal liquor business in the state. It had recommended the creation of a separate 'wing' in the Punjab Police focused on curbing the manufacture and sale of illicit liquor. As per the report, this wing was to track bootlegging, especially in the border districts, the report had said. These recommendations were neither discussed nor implemented. "It was also recommended that excise department officials play a more proactive role as illegal hooch is not only a threat to people's lives but is also causing huge losses to the state exchequer. I don't think that report was ever discussed anywhere," an officer of this committee told HT on the condition of anonymity. A Punjab Police SIT, led by then ADGP (law and order) Gurinder Singh Dhillon, which probed the criminal angle, had also suggested making local SHOs and DSPs responsible for the sale and manufacturing of illegal liquor. "I could not complete the probe as I had opted to take voluntary retirement. But our SIT had suggested fixing the responsibility of the local SHO and his superior DSP. It is such a deep-rooted nexus that it is not possible that local police weren't aware of the sale of such liquor," said the former ADGP, who after his retirement had joined the Congress. In August 2020, during the Covid pandemic, when liquor vends were closed, Punjab faced yet another hooch tragedy that left 135 people in the districts of Tarn Taran, Amritsar, and Batala dead. T he police probe into this hooch tragedy had found an organised gang running this network. Then DGP Dinkar Gupta pushed for having Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act (PCOCA) like stringent laws to deal with such cases. After an initial push by then CM Capt Amarinder Singh-led government, the introduction of the strict law as put on the backburner. "In all major hooch tragedies in the state, methyl alcohol was used. However, no regulation has come in place in Punjab," a retired excise official said, pleading anonymity....