This bizzare incident was reported from a police station in Chhindwara district, where the cops had seized illegal liquor packed in plastic bottles and put them in a store room.

However, when time came to produce the seized liquor in the court, the police found that at least 60 bottles were empty. The clueless cops concluded that the large quantity of alcohol was gupled down by rodents!

As per the police, the building is too old where rats are often seen moving around, even destroying records.

The police also claimed to have ‘arrested’ one of the ‘accused’ rats, which will now be produced before the court as proof.

However, the police are yet to confirm as to how many rats were involved in the liquor party!

The case in which the liquor bottles were seized is still pending before the court. The police are now trying to find a way to explain the situation as the seized liquor needs to be produced in the court.

This is not the first time when rats have been accused to drinking liquor at a police station. In an earlier instance, when the police narrated a similar incident in the Shajapur district court, the judge and entire the court staff had burst out laughing.

In 2018, over 1,000 litres of seized liquor kept at the storehouse of Bareilly’s Cantonment police station in Uttar Pradesh had disappeared. The local policemen had blamed rats for guzzling the liquor down.

On the 25th, the first day of the visit there was an orientation programme in OUA. Speaking on the occasion Mr. G Mathivathanan, Principal Secretary, H&UD enlightening them on urban transformation in Odisha, presented an overview of different Urban Sanitation and water initiatives, missions and programs in Odisha, and the emerging challenges of re-use of harvested biosolids. Odisha is known for its pioneering Faecal Sludge & Sepatge Management (FSSM), especially decentralised community-led inclusive sanitation in the country. The State has built 118 faecal sludge treatment plants (FSTPs)/sewage treatment plants (STPs) across all 115 ULBs. The State-wide roll-out of convergence of rural & urban sanitation is currently underway, he added. He further pointed out the role of Odisha Urban Academy in strengthening the capacity-building ecosystems in water, sanitation and inclusive urban development space.

Director Municipal Administration cum Mission Director SBM Shri Sangramajit Nayak made a detailed understanding of the various people-centric programmes, FSSM value chain, Garima, the Dight platform and initiatives for urban-rural convergence being implemented in the State.

Among others, Additional Secretary Durgesh Nandini Sahoo, Director Drinking Water & Sanitation B Parameswaran and others interacted with the delegates on various issues. Following the meeting, the team visited the Odisha Urban Academy and the FSTP in Basuaghai, Bhubaneswar. On 2nd day after visiting some wealth centres in Bhubaneswar proceeded to Jatni, Konark NAC on a field visit and interacted with locals & NAC officials. The next day they visited the water treatment plant in Puri and discussed with the officials.