Patna: The Assembly on Monday passed the amendment bill to the dry law, and chief minister Nitish Kumar claimed that those opposing prohibition were anti-Dalit.

The chief minister also iterated his claim - in a 45-minute speech in the Assembly on Monday during the passage of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2018 - that imposing prohibition was a pro-poor move.

The amendment bill, which was passed by the Assembly on Monday by voice vote amid a walkout by the Opposition members, will introduce several changes in the original prohibition law enacted in 2016.

Some of the major changes include making the first-time offence of drinking liquor a bailable one which would attract either Rs 50,000 as fine or three months of jail. The bill also waters down some of the provisions in the law that drew flak as draconian, including making all adult members of a family accused in case liquor was found in a house, seizing vehicles, and imposing collective fine.

Excise and prohibition minister Bijendra Yadav tabled the amendment bill amid slogan shouting by Opposition members, several of whom were standing in the Well of the House demanding special debate on the drought-like situation prevailing in the state owing to deficient rainfall this monsoon.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav raised the drought issue as soon as the Assembly commenced its post-lunch business. An assurance by Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary that he would convene a meeting of the business advisory committee of the House to discuss the demand of the Opposition failed to cut ice with the Opposition members who staged a walkout refusing to take part in the debate on the prohibition law amendment bill.

Nitish took a jab at those who were saying that the amendment bill was anti-poor because of the hefty fine stipulated for first-time prohibition violators.

"Do such people want that the poor should drink?" Nitish asked. Instead of raising such points, he said, people should counsel the poor against consuming alcohol. He also claimed that those opposing prohibition were anti-Dalit. Sharing his government's plan of coming up with a scheme for people who have traditionally been in the business of brewing liquor, Nitish said that the survey was on and the identified people would be given financial help from Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh for taking up alternative professions.

"We would also appoint one motivator for every 40 to 50 such families to convince them to take up alternative work," Nitish said.

Refuting claims that a large number of people were languishing in Bihar jails because of the prohibition law, the chief minister said according to official data updated till July 12 this year Bihar jails can house 39,436 inmates and at present the jails in the state have 39,087 inmates of which 6,932 are accused of violating prohibition related laws.

Nitish said the amendments had been introduced after detailed consultation with all political parties and efforts had been made to make punishments proportionate to the crimes and also to prevent misuse.

He also said that those "who were with us" in making the "historic human chain" on prohibition were now saying "so many things". He urged those people to think of the poor and the downtrodden.