Patna, May 29: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today expressed his determination on implementing prohibition and said that those who were drinking stealthily through "home delivery" were the ones who were making noises about the failure of liquor ban in the state.
"Those who are able to drink stealthily, hiding inside their homes, are the ones who are publicising the failure of prohibition. The customers of 'home delivery' (mafia delivering liquor to customers at their homes) are making much noise about this. I will not stray from prohibition till I am here. The rest is in the hands of uparwale (God), on whom nobody has any control," Nitish said.
The chief minister was speaking after inaugurating a "health fair" and upgraded 40-bed unit for newborns and infants at Mahavir Vatsalya Hospital on its 11th foundation day in Patna. He asserted that when he takes up any cause, he does it with total determination and strength.
Asserting he will not tolerate any slackness in the implementation of prohibition, Nitish said: "You think as much as you want before taking a decision, but there should be no slackness in implementation after it has been taken. We are going to take very strict action against any dereliction. We will not leave any police or excise official in this regard."
Recalling media reports that rats drank 9 lakh litres of seized liquor in the state and the way news about it went viral just because a police station house officer (SHO) said so, Nitish said: "It was used to make fun of Bihar and its prohibition campaign."
"I asked the officials to publicly destroy the seized liquor as there was no need to do anything. I asked them to keep samples as evidence, inform the court about the seizures, and then destroy the bottles," Nitish said.
Speaking further on the occasion, the chief minister said a vigorous campaign against child marriage and dowry would be launched in the state on October 2 this year. He revealed that he was inspired by a woman who requested him to take action against the dowry system at a recent 'Lok Samvad' (public interaction) meet.
"Child marriage leads to various health related issues. Mother and children become victims of malnutrition and their growth does not happen properly," Nitish said.
Expressing worry over stunting (short height) of children in the new generation, the chief minister attributed child marriage as one of the reasons for it. "We are paying attention to the problem of stunting and how to remove it. It is a worry for us because the height of children is increasing across the world, but it's decreasing in a few districts in our state. Malnourished mothers give birth to weak children," Nitish said.
The Bihar chief minister also lauded the success of immunisation programme in the state and pointed out that the incidence of immunisation was very low earlier, but has now reached around 85 per cent. "Our aim is to take Bihar among the top five states in the country in immunisation," Nitish said.
The chief minister also said that Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the state has reduced. But, he pointed out, there was a need to improve IMR in the case of the girl child as it was higher in comparison to the male child.
Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in Bihar was around 200 against the targeted rate of 100 per 1 lakh pregnant women.
As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 statistics, IMR for Bihar has declined to 48 per 1000 live births during 2015-16 in comparison to 61 in 2005-06, but Nitish said IMR in case of the girl child was still above 50.
