Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hit out at the BJP on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar and said his ideologies were being trampled and his followers traumatised even driven to the brink of suicide.
Speaking at a function here on Thursday, Nitish said in the name of nationalism and patriotism sedition cases are filed against innocent youth and the NDA Government instead of fulfilling its promises was only coining emotional slogans.
On this occasion a workshop of Vikas Mitra on total prohibition was also held which was inaugurated by the CM. Saying that total prohibition was a major social reform, Nitish said his decision has received overwhelming support of people who are happy over the ban on alcohol and only the liquor traders were unhappy. “This habit had been destroying the society and making the life of women and children hellish. I was in favour of prohibition from the very beginning and when I felt that there is strong support for this our Government decided to implement it. Now similar demands are being made in other States and sooner or later the Governments there have to ban it under public pressure,” the CM said.
He also announced that money would be refunded to those who sought license or renewed it for Indian made foreign liquor. The de-addiction centres have been opened in each district for the treatment of the habitual boozers. “The total prohibition has brought total peace in Bihar,” he claimed.
Hitting back at the protagonists of toddy, the CM said some people have polluted ideologies and trying to incite certain sections of the society with false propaganda. He said there is no prohibition on toddy and only restriction of its sale at certain places. But he said within an year an atmosphere would be created where people would prefer to drink Neera instead of toddy. “Some people want to keep Pasi caste backward and poor and want to see them only doing toddy tapping so that their children should not go to schools and move forward,” Nitish said and added that talks were going on with the scientists in Tamil Nadu who did study on Neera processing and developing palm products.
The CM said he has been invited to Jharkhand where women groups are holding a big function. In Tamil Nadu too, he added, both the major political parties there have announced to ban liquor. “Bihar is going to create a history and set an example for the world with successful implementation of total prohibition,” he said.