Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has strongly denied any attempt to make law for the arrest of adult males on seizure of liquor in their neighbourhood. He also denied the reports that village mukhiya and chowkidar be sent to jail if liquor is found in their village.
Addressing the elected representatives of the panchayati raj institutions, the CM said all sorts of rumours were being spread. “The rumours about arrest of neighbours, mukhiya and chowkidar on seizure of liquor, have been spread by rumour mongers. It has become a profession of some people to spread baseless reports to misguide common people,” said the CM.
It had earlier been reported by some vernacular newspapers that the Bihar Government was going to amend the Bihar Excise Act, 2016 to make it more dreaded and even arrest male members of the family in whose neighbourhood liquor would be seized. Similarly, the mukhiyas and chowkidar could be arrested if liquor is found in any house in their villager. The report had reasoned that Government was forced to go for amendment in view of the release of accused people from different courts from whose houses liquor was seized.
While addressing panchayat representative through webcasting Nitish asked, “Am I so crazy to make such a law of sending mukhiyas to jailIJ Can anybody imagine thisIJ Sometimes back it had been rumoured that if liquor is seized from any house even the neighbours would be sent to jail. Do you think it is possibleIJ” The CM also asked them to take pledge of not consuming liquor and making people aware about its ill effects.
By using the phrase rumour masters, Nitish was referring to the BJP and its leaders who after the publication of such reports had come down heavily on the CM and called him a dictator. RJD supremo lalu Prasad too had disapproved of any such move by the Government.
Sources said that the amended Act would be introduced in the coming Monsoon Session of the legislature which might make possession of liquor a cognizable offence.
Meanwhile, the Patna High Court said since possession of liquor in the house was not a crime under the law how come FIR was lodged against JD(U) MlC Manorma Devi. Acting Chief Justice of the court Iqbal Ahmed Ansari asked this question to the SSP of Gaya and asked him to furnish reply by July 25. He said the Government is free to bring whatever law it wanted to introduce and it should not wait for the judgment of the court. “We are also waiting for the new legislation,” he said while hearing the writ petition related to arrest of Manorma Devi, who had earlier been granted bail by the High Court. The court said that under the prevalent law, passed only three months back, consumption of liquor was a crime and not its possession.
Meantime, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has denied report appeared in a section of media that the Bihar Government was taking services of the Foundation to study the socio-economic impact of the prohibition.