In Liquor-Banned Bihar, Helicopters Will Search For Bootleggers
For over five years now the sale and consumption of liquor have remained banned. But this has not stopped people from drinking alcohol and hooch tragedies are not uncommon in the state.
Now, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar will use helicopters to search the manufacture of illicit liquor and its trade in the state.?
Previously, the Bihar government in December 2021 had made use of drones to keep a check on the illegal liquor trade in the state.
Last month, the government had asked government school teachers to check and report violations of the state's stringent liquor prohibition law.
The order said that teaching staff of schools should be sensitized about liquor ban and encouraged to share information about violations of the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol.
It said that the identity of teachers who blow the whistle would not be disclosed. Teachers have also been told to ensure that premises of the schools do not end up as havens for illicit liquor business.
Liquor ban only on paper?
Despite ordering a blanket ban on liquor in Bihar since April 2016, the government has failed to implement it effectively.
In fact, the?National Family Health Survey 2019-20?had found that Bihar has a higher proportion of people consuming alcohol than states like Maharashtra and Goa.
According to the NFHS-5, 15.5 percent of the male population of age 15 years and above in Bihar consume alcohol.
Hooch tragedies
But the biggest concern for the government is the rising number of hooch tragedies in the state.
Since November last year alone, more than 50 people have lost their lives across half a dozen districts after consuming country-made liquor.
Three liquor tragedies happened in January this year alone in which 37 people died and over 50 lost their eyesight.
Recently, the government had decided to conduct a census of those people who have managed to give up liquor since the Prohibition Act was imposed.
"As per the previous survey, 1.64 crore people have left liquor. Now, we have decided to conduct the same to find out the exact number of people who left the liquor," the CM had said earlier this month.
Amid the growing number of hooch tragedies, the call to revoke the liquor ban is getting louder, including from his own party.
"CM Nitish Kumar is appealing to the people of the state to avoid consuming poisonous liquor. Still, people are making spurious liquor and drinking it. People of Bihar drinking spurious liquor and dying is a good practice as it creates space in society and reduces the population of the state," JDU MLA Gopal Mandal had said recently.
"Our chief minister Nitish Kumar is regularly warning the people of Bihar to avoid drinking liquor. Then why are they doing it?" he asked.
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