Palakkad: If a can of beer is your idea of quenching thirst in peak summer, it has exactly the opposite effect in parched Palakkad. Water is being smuggled out of Malampuzha by the truckloads to brew beer in United Breweries, promoted by fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.

A Manorama News team tracked the water tankers that speed away on Malampuzha road in the early hours to the brewery in Puthussery. A fleet of tankers make away with lakhs of liters of water from the plant that supplies drinking water to the whole of Palakkad. The tankers reach the plant around midnight and proceed towards the brewery after 3 am.

Palakkad MLA Shafi Prambil said he would raise the issue in the Legislative Assembly after the television channel broadcast footage of the water loot.

Officials of the Kerala Water Authority insist that they have not authorized any institution to draw water from the reservoir for at least a month and a half. The government had allowed some companies to draw water during daytime but imposed restrictions after water sources dried up in the summer.

The local bodies are struggling to supply drinking water to the citizens but that has not prevented the brewer from sneaking out water to make beer with the tacit approval of some officials.