Patna, Sept. 14: The government on Wednesday decided to gift the new Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016, and the student credit card scheme to the people of the state on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.
The act, which was passed by the legislature during the monsoon session and okayed by Governor Ram Nath Kovind on September 7, paves the way for the strictest prohibition regime in the country.
Cabinet secretariat department principal secretary Brajesh Mehtrotra said: "A decision in this regard was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar at the state secretariat, and the notification of the act coming into effect will be published in the Bihar Gazette soon."
Under the new law, people will face imprisonment of 10 years to life for consuming alcohol or any contraband substance. All adult family members of a violator will be held guilty, and the head or in-charge of a company and all responsible persons will be held guilty if any employee flouts prohibition on company premises. Any excise or police official of the rank of sub-inspector or above can enter any premises at any time without warrant to inspect, search and collect samples. Any person found violating or trying to violate prohibition can be arrested without a warrant, and house owners who let out premises or buildings in which prohibition is violated will be held guilty and sentenced to prison term of the same duration as the violator. District magistrates can also impose collective fines on villages, towns or communities if repeated violations of prohibition occur.
The cabinet also approved the education department's student credit card scheme, under which all higher secondary or Class XII-pass students can avail a loan of up to Rs 4 lakh for higher studies. The scheme is part of chief minister Nitish Kumar's seven resolves for a developed Bihar.
"We are aiming at covering five lakh students during 2016-17," said finance department principal secretary Ravi Mittal. "The numbers will increase by a lakh every year and the scheme is expected to cover nine lakh students by 2020-21. We will facilitate education loan to students even if their number surpasses our target."
Students will have to register themselves at district registration centres, which will facilitate sanction of loans by banks within 15 days. Students will not have to approach banks. Further paperwork and disbursement of loan instalments will be completed in another 15 days.
Ravi said students can avail the education loan as per their needs, but the state government would provide a loan default guarantee of up to Rs 4 lakh to the banks. Major part of the loan amount will go directly to education institutions as fees, while a smaller part will be provided to student as monthly allowance.
The state government will sign an agreement with banks on the student credit cards by September 20, Mittal added. Detailed information will be provided if application of a student seeking loan is rejected. Further modalities of the scheme will be provided by the government by the launch date.
The cabinet also approved compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of the 18 persons who died in the Gopalganj hooch tragedy last month and Rs 2 lakh for grievously ill persons in the incident and Rs 20,000 for those whose condition was not serious. The total compensation amount will come to around Rs 64 lakh, officials said.
