Janata Dal Dal (U) president and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar lashed out at the Samajwadi Party government of UP, for failing to ban the production and sale of the alcohol in the state. He said the UP government must learn a lesson from the hooch tragedy in Etah which has claimed over two dozen lives. He demanded nationwide ban on alcohol.
Nitish Kumar praised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for total ban on alcohol in his home state Gujarat and urged the prime minister to ban the alcohol in all BJKP ruled states. He however lashed out at the prime minister for failing to deliver on his pre poll promises made during the campaign or the 2014 parliament elections about bringing back the black money stashed in foreign banks and cleaning of river Ganga.
Addressing a regional convention of his party at Phulpur in Allahabad on Sunday said `` I was stunned when I read in newspapers that many people have died in Etah after consuming spurious liquor’’.
"I had told the UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to consider banning alcohol in his state but he had cited the interest of the sugarcane farmers. He is more concerned about the revenue generated from the sale of alcohol rather than the interests of the poor and the downtrodden who are the worst victims of the alcohol’’, said Nitish Kumar.
"UP chief minister argues that the sugarcane farmers will suffer if the ban on alcohol was imposed in the state. UP government instead of promoting the production of alcohol from sugarcane should encourage the production of Ethanol, which would be more beneficial for the sugarcane farmers’’, said the Bihar chief minister.
listing the achievements of the Bihar government, Nitish Kumar said his government is vigorously pursuing the goal of women empowerment. `` Women have 50 percent reservation in urban and rural local bodies and girl students up to class 9th have been given free cycles and above all the ban on alcohol has immensely served the cause of women empowerment by stabilising the economy of the families of the weaker sections of society’’.
Targeting the prime minister narendra Modi, Bihar chief minister said `` Narendra Modi has failed the people of India. He has forgotten all the promises like on black money, remunerative price to the farmers for their agriculture produce , cleaning river Ganga and jobs for the unemployed youth, he had made during the 2014 elections’’.
Earlier addressing the meeting senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav cautioned the people about the designs of the communal forces and they are out to create communal conflict in UP ahead of the coming assembly elections.