The Milita Odisha Nisha Nibaran Abhijan (MONNA) on Monday urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to implement the Orissa Prohibition Act 1956 with stringent punishment provisions without delay and make Odisha a total prohibition State.
In a letter to Patnaik, Abhiyan president Padmacharan Nayak reminded that representatives of MONNA had in 2014 met him and submitted a memorandum signed by 10 lakh voters demanding implementation of “The Orissa Prohibition Act 1956”. The he had assured to do the needful.
Again, the Mona submitted signatures of five lakh person on October 1, 2016 demanding implementation of total prohibition without delay before the Nisha Nivaran Divas held on Gandhi Jayanti.
“You had assured us to do needful to declare Odisha total prohibition State. But surprisingly, the Excise Minister has declared several times that the Government has no plan to implement the total prohibition in the State. Even the Orissa Excise Act of 2008, which was passed in the Assembly and received the consent of the Presiden, remains in the Government records only,” Nayak said in the letter.
Nayak further mentioned that it would be right tribute to former Chief Minister Naba Krushna Choudhury, during whose period the Orissa Prohibition Act 1956 was passed, if he declares to make Odiah a total prohibition state on Choudhury’s birth day on November 23 this year.