“I will not step back from what I had said… and I will implement it. I had spoken from my heart”. If it’s only on country liquor, the state’s revenue loss would be limited to around Rs 1,500-2,000 crore annually. The new policy of prohibition would be implemented from the next financial year beginning April 1, 2016, ” Nitish said at a programme to mark Prohibition Day.
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Bihar is the latest state in India that will ban the consumption of alcohol, fulfilling an election pledge by the state’s Chief Minister. “We also demand a similar ban in Jharkhand to prevent any prospect of sale of liquor in black in the bordering areas”, JD(U) state unit General Secretary Bhagwan Singh said in Ranchi.
But the decision found rare support from a key political rival. Last year, another local government in the south Indian state of Kerala, popular among tourists for its backwaters and beaches, had announced a plan to enforce total prohibition within a decade. This is indeed a very tricky situation because till date there is no absolute proof to show the extent of success prohibition has had in curbing domestic violence, one of the main reasons for banning the sale of liquor. In Bihar under the regime of Karpoori Thakur, liquor was banned between 1977 and 1979.
“There will be prohibition in the state if I am voted to power again”, the CM had said.
Providing free electricity connection to all the households was one of the seven promises Nitish Kumar made ahead of the assembly elections which his Grand Alliance won.
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He said there were large numbers of complaints from women about the problems arising out of the addiction to liquor among men in their families.
