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No liquor please: Bihar goes dry from today, six months before planned

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 05, Apr 2016, 15:54 pm IST | UPDATED: 05, Apr 2016, 15:54 pm IST

No liquor please: Bihar goes dry from today, six months before planned Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is so happy with the response to a ban on country liquor in the state, that he today advanced total prohibition by six months. Bihar goes dry with immediate effect, he said after a two-hour Cabinet meeting.

This means that starting today, no alcohol can be legally consumed in all of Bihar, including bars and restaurants.

On Friday, the state government had announced a ban on country liquor as phase 1 towards full prohibition and the chief minister had promised to phase out sale and consumption of all alcohol within six months.   

"In the first four days of the ban on country liquor, it has become a social movement. Even in cities women are opposing government-run shops selling liquor as we had planned to start for the next six months. And so I feel this is the right time for social change in Bihar," Mr Kumar said.

Prohibition is close to the Chief Minister's heart and political agenda and was a key promise he made to women voters, who are seen to have played an important role in his winning a third term in November last year

Asked how the government will make up losses from stopping the sale of liquor, Mr Kumar said he did not want revenues from alcohol. Bihar earned 3,300 crores from liquor sales last year.

In the four days since the ban on country liquor, politicians and policemen have rushed to show their commitment to the Chief Minister's pet cause.  

While Bihar's 243 state legislators had formally vowed to "stay away from alcohol" when the new law was passed, thousands of policemen in the state lined up and pledged on Monday not to drink alcohol and to ensure successful prohibition.

As the ban on country liquor - which provides for the death penalty for those caught manufacturing or selling country-made and spurious liquor - came into force, all shops selling country liquor in rural areas and cities were shut down.

The police have set up a control room in Patna, which will function round the clock to ensure the implementation of the new law.
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