No liquor in Bihar from next year

Jitendra K Shrivastava

Tribune News Service

Patna, November 26

Fulfilling a pre-poll promise he made to women, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said liquor would be banned in the state from April 1 next year.

“We will ban liquor from the next financial year and try to end the sufferings of people owing to alcohol abuse. Compared to the rich, the poor suffer more as they are unaware of the perils of the menace. I have instructed officials to prepare an action plan before the ban comes into effect from April 1,” Nitish said at a function organised to mark the Anti-liquor Day here.

Nitish said though liquor was the biggest source of revenue for the government and the ban could slow the pace of development, “he was ready to compromise with development than see people suffer”. “We are ready to slow the pace of development a bit for the sake of the poor who are vulnerable to liquor. Their houses are spoilt…their lives become hell with alcohol consumption,” he said.

Nitish directed Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh “to do whatever needed to be done” for preparing a new liquor policy. “The women had demanded ban on liquor during a function in Patna and I had promised them to implement it if voted back to power… The village women are the biggest victim of liquor consumption, which will not be tolerated now,” he said.

The Opposition too has welcomed the move. “We had been demanding liquor ban since long… We have to see what steps the government takes in the new excise policy,” said senior BJP leader Nand Kishor Yadav.