The story behind making Bihar a "dry state" unfolded in a short span of time, no more than 12 hours.

Following massive protests and mismanagement in running government liquor shops following partial prohibition from April 1, chief minister Nitish Kumar called K.K. Pathak, principal secretary, excise, to his chamber on Monday evening.

"Pathak, while leaving his chamber at the new secretariat, asked his immediate subordinates to prepare two proposals," said a senior excise official on condition of anonymity. "The first was to allow private liquor retailers an extension of six months in wake of difficulties in running the government liquor shops and second - introduce complete prohibition."

Officials remained at work in the excise department till 11.30 in the night preparing the proposal not knowing it would be implemented in the morning. "We were completely unaware about it (complete prohibition) till the morning," said the official who was among the employees who stayed back till late night. "Principal secretary Pathak called all senior officials to the department around 7.30am on Tuesday. We were asked to finalise the proposal for complete prohibition which was to be tabled in the cabinet meeting to start from 11.30am."

The chief minister's sudden orders, sources said, was out of annoyance with the teething troubles in operating government liquor shops.

"The newspapers in the past four days were filled with reports on nuisances because of government liquor shops. Besides, the opposition was also demanding complete prohibition, so the chief minister decided to do away with all these hassles and decided to implement complete prohibition," said the official.

Under partial prohibition, only sale and consumption of country liquor was prohibited. Foreign liquor could still be sold and consumed in the urban areas. However, the Bihar State Beverages Corporation Limited - entrusted with the task to run government foreign liquor shops in urban areas - failed in its job.

Protests and agitation against the government shops marked partial prohibition from the first day. The reason - Bihar State Beverages Corporation Limited's lack of planning. The corporation neither had the required manpower nor the property. Around 50 of the total 457 corporation-run liquor shops failed to open in the past four days because of sudden rush of tipplers and protests from residents.

The corporation's managing director, Mithilesh Mishra, said they could open 40 liquor shops in the past four days and total sales as of April 4 was Rs 20 lakh. He added that stocks were supplied to 90 shops as of Monday.

"As on today, we have 2.7 crore liquor bottles left with us. We would send them back to the companies," he said.