If you are a Bacchus lover and traveling to Bihar, better shun the habit for the period you want to spend in the fully dry State. And also don’t posses even a single bottle of liquor during your stay. You may be arrested either on board the train when you enter Bihar or be dragged out of the hotel room and sent behind bars.
The Bihar prohibition has caught the attention of the Indian Railways which has started making public announcement on the New Delhi Railway Station warning passengers against boozing in Bihar bound trains. These announcements are made at the time of the start of such trains. Also, in the New Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express a similar announcement is made and passengers are informed about the punishments if caught with bottle.
The police have been put on high alert and in the running trains they are swooping on the suspected boozer armed with breath analyzer. Several passengers even in the premier Rajdhani Express have been detained either carrying or consuming liquor.
The strictness of the administration against the violators of total prohibition in shows that the Government is rigid to enforce the law and take on everybody found violating the rules.
The arrest of about ten persons in different incidents from two posh hotels in Patna and their remand to judicial custody indicate how strict the Government is to implement the ban on liquor. All of the people arrested from the two hotels, mostly from outside the State, are languishing in jail and have been refused bail.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has now pledged to take the anti prohibition campaign to the neighbouring States. First he would go to Dhanbad in Jharkhand on May 10 at the invitation of Jharkhand Nari Sangharsh Morcha. The office bearers of the Morcha called on the CM and invited him to address the anti-liquor rally in Dhanbad, the coal belt where liquor is very common among miners and other men.
The CM is also likely to address two pro-prohibition events in Varanasi and lucknow on May 12 and 15 respectively. These rallies would be organised by the women associations and have invited Nitish who has emerged as a champion of prohibition. The CM recently gave a call for total prohibition in the country. At a TV show actor Shah Rukh Khan, in jest though, was heard saying that like Bihar, Delhi should also ban liquor.
Recently, at a review meeting of the Patna zone, it came to the knowledge that that the crime graph has come down sharply in the Patna division after imposition of the prohibition. The six districts falling under Patna division reported 27 per cent fall in the number of cognizable offences between April 1-23. a sharp decline in road accidents and casualties was also reported. Patna division commissioner Anand Kishore said the incidents of conflicts and social tension during religious processions have also reported a sharp decline after prohibition helping improve law and order situation.
