Amendments aim to give prohibition law more teeth: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the purpose behind making some changes in the total prohibition law was to make it more effective and protect the innocent people from its misuse. Speaking in the Bihar Assembly on Monday before the passage of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2018 he lashed out at the opponents of the total prohibition and called them “enemy of poor and Dalits.”

The Bill was passed by voice vote in absence of the Opposition. The RJD wanted to defer the debate on the amendment Bill and instead take up its adjournment motion for debate on drought like situation in the State.

When the motion was rejected and Speaker Vijay Choudhary took up amendment Bill, the RJD members trooped in the well of the House and began slogan shouting for sometimes before walking out led by leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. Congress also joined the main Opposition party in staging walkout.

Since all the changes in the Bill had been pushed by Ramdeo Rai of Congress, who made exit from the House, none of them could be taken up for debate and they were rejected. The Bill passed by the legislature will be sent to the Governor for his ascent.

Nitish said the total prohibition will continue and he would not compromise with it. Calling the prohibition policy a major social reform, he claimed the rural society has undergone a huge change for good and its impact could be seen in each house in any village. He said the families of very poor, SC, ST and EBCs were worst affected because of the drinking habit of one person of the family but now the same people were the benefactors of the prohibition law.

The CM said till July 12, 2018, only 6,932 people were in jail in prohibition related cases and the total capacity of Bihar jails was only 39,486. He made fun of politicians who had been claiming that more than one lakh people were behind bars. He also added that 62 per cent of the arrested people were drinkers while 38 per cent were non-drinkers including suppliers.

Nitish said some clauses of the Act have been eliminated like the provision of community fine, seizure of premises where liquor was found or the bus in which a passenger was caught carrying bottles. Similarly the clause of the FIR against all adult members of the family where liquor was consumed was also deleted.

The CM announced that a survey was being conducted by Jeevika groups to identify the families in rural areas who were involved in liquor manufacturing so that alternative source of livelihood is provided to them. “The Government will give financial support of Rs 60,000 up to a maximum of Rs one lakh to such people for starting alternative occupation,” the CM announced.