Patna, Nov. 26: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today ordered senior police officers to find out how former liquor traders were surviving in the face of reports of liquor being smuggled into the state.
"I have been receiving reports about the involvement of former liquor traders in the smuggling of alcohol while moving around the state," Nitish said during Prohibition Day celebrations at Patna's Adhiveshan Bhavan. "Find out about the occupation of each and every of them. If they are involved in any other work then it's a matter of joy, if not they will have to say how they are surviving."
He expressed displeasure about liquor smuggling - in whatever limited quantity it may be - into Bihar from not just the neighbouring states of Jharkhand and Bengal but also from Haryana.
Truckloads of contraband Indian-made foreign liquor, a majority of which purportedly came from Haryana as indicated by labels on the confiscated bottles and cartons, have been seized in Bihar in the past couple of months.
Excise minister Abdul Jalil Mastan, chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, principal secretary of excise and home departments Amir Subhani, principal secretary, education, R.K. Mahajan, additional directors-general of police Sunil Kumar and Alok Raj were present at the event besides other officials.
"Can this contraband liquor come without the knowledge of officials working under you," a peeved Nitish asked Sunil and Raj, and asked them to "keep a watch over the subordinate officials."
"It seems you all have forgotten your own orders that police officers found lacking on the prohibition front will not be made station house officers for 10 years. You must ensure strict compliance," he told the senior officers.
The government has celebrated Prohibition Day on November 26 every year since 2011. Last year on this day, Nitish announced his intention to clamp prohibition on Bihar.
From next year, Nitish asked the excise department to celebrate De-addiction Day instead of Prohibition Day.
Nitish stuck to his uncompromising stand on prohibition, arguing that while some educated people were trying to link prohibition with curbs on freedom, drinking liquor was not a fundamental right.
"Prohibition is an unshakeable decision. It has attracted extensive public support," he said. "Opinion of the people has been taken and we will go to the legislature if needed, but there will be no compromise on the liquor ban."
He added that no excuses on prohibition will work, and suggested that people who cannot live without drinks should live outside Bihar.
Nitish went on to say that prohibition would not be successful without continuous public awareness and support.
Going ahead with his support for demonetisation, Nitish said the decision has curbed dubious practices. But he demanded the Centre to make efforts to alleviate the people's hardships.
"I request the PM to hit at benami property (unaccounted property in the name of ghost buyers), gold, diamond and also liquor trade, which fosters black money," Nitish said. "He should expand prohibition to other parts of the country. Then only we will ensure a corruption-free nation."
Nitish laughed at reports appearing in a section of media which attributed his support for demonetisation to a purportedly secret meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah at a farmhouse recently. "Had the reporter who gave this news taken me to the farmhouse where I met Amit Shah?" he said, lamenting over "baseless news which hitherto was prevalent only in social media platform", PTI reported.
He asserted that prohibition has led to the use of income for useful purposes and data from Sudha dairy has revealed that sale of milk has increased by 11 per cent, rasagollas by 16.5 per cent, gulab jamun and peda by 15.5 per cent in the past seven months.
Human chain
A human chain, involving 2 crore people in support of prohibition, will be formed on January 21, 2017.
"The human chain will stretch from Purnea on the northeastern side of the state to Gopalganj, close to the Bihar-Uttar Pradesh border in the west (over 400km away from each other), and will be the longest in the world," Nitish said. "It will be a 45-minute programme and we will arrange to get a satellite image of it. It will symbolise public cooperation and awareness and will be publicised across the globe." The public awareness campaign will continue till Bihar Divas on March 22.
