Patna, April 3: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today picked up the Supreme Court's highway liquor-shop ban to push for what has almost become his pet project, nationwide prohibition.
People in many states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana are strongly opposing the shifting of liquor shops away from highways into residential areas in accordance with the apex court order delivered in December last year banning liquor shops within 500 metres of national and state highways in an effort to curb drink-driving and road accidents that claim thousands of lives every year.
"Shifting liquor shops 500 metres away from national and state highways due to the Supreme Court directive is no solution to the problem," Nitish said when he was asked his opinion on the on the issue on the sidelines of his special Lok Samvad (public dialogue) programme held in the state capital today.
"Complete ban on liquor is the only way out," he added. "Prohibition is the answer as it is attached to public aspiration across the country."
He demanded that the BJP-led government at the Centre should take a lead on this front.
"It's the centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha and I would request the central government to show its commitment (to the ideals of the Mahatma) by banning liquor in the country. It could be started with BJP-ruled states," Nitish said.
He pointed out that neither does any religion support drinking, nor does the Constitution say that the right to drink alcohol a fundamental right, and asked why the Centre was not implementing nationwide prohibition.
The chief minister said he has visited several states and noticed that the public sentiment was in favour of prohibition.
Bihar, he said, had shown the way and "people (in other states) were welcoming the step taken by Bihar".
Since clamping total prohibition in Bihar on April 5 last year, Nitish has addressed pro-liquor-ban events in states like Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
"I have been requesting chief ministers of other states to ban liquor," the chief minister said. "I will do so to Uttar Pradesh CM (Yogi Adityanath). I had suggested this to (former Uttar Pradesh chief minister) Akhilesh Yadav and had requested Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee while attending her oath-taking ceremony."
A few states were avoiding liquor ban on excuses that it will hurt their sugar industry because molasses are used to make alcohol, Nitish said, and declared that no sugar mill had suffered in Bihar as they switched over to produce ethanol, which he called good for the country's economy and environment. The central government has directed that 10 per cent ethanol be mixed in petrol.
Nitish also pooh-poohed suggestions that prohibition leads to drop in a state's revenue and declared that Bihar's loss of Rs 5,000 crore excise and value added tax (VAT) in 2015-16 due to the ban on liquor has been almost compensated in 2016-17.
"In the beginning revenue falls," he said. but money saved from not spending on liquor leads to growth on expenditure of other items like garments, electrical appliances, milk products, furniture. It expands the economy and leads to revenue growth."
