Nitish bans liquor in Bihar from April 1

Patna: Women voters outnumbered men in the recently held Bihar polls. Nitish Kumar’s pledge to introduce prohibition in the state had resonated with women voters who turned up in droves to vote for the Grand Alliance.  Alcohol will be banned in Bihar from April 1 next year, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced on Thursday fulfilling a promise he made to women before the assembly elections in the state. “I had made a promise that if my government returns to power we will impose prohibition. The government is committed to fulfill its promise,” he told a function on Excise Day here. The state earns a revenue of Rs 4000 crore annually from liquor sale.

“But in the interest of women and poor, the state government will impose ban on liquor from April 1, 2016,” he said. Kumar directed Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and Principal Secretary Excise KK Pathak to start working on a new excise policy to ban liquor in the state from April 1, 2016. Women had requested Kumar at a function ahead of the October-November assembly polls to stop sale of liquor saying it was ruining their homes and Kumar had promised to do so if he returned to power. Announcing the ban on Thursday, Kumar spoke about the ill effects of liquor and that women were the worst sufferers. He said it is seen that a poor family is ruined due to liquor addiction of its male member. “We wish to return happiness on the face of such families by imposing the ban.”