Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday met people from various walks of life at his newly-launched Lok Samvad programme to get their suggestions and feedback on the provisions of the new Prohibition Act implemented in the State from October 2.
Most of the people present in the interactive programme opposed the harsh legal measures provided for in the Act and suggested that the punishment should be viable and practical.
‘Opposed some measures’As many as 35 people drawn from the field of politics, legal, medical, business and other professions turned up to give their feedback.
Speaking to The Hindu , some of them said the larger opinion was against the ‘stringent and harsh’ provisions of the amended law. The excise and prohibition department had already asked for feedback and suggestions on the issue through newspaper advertisements and received a total of 1,122 responses in 12-days via email, postal mail and SMS.
“We opposed measures like community fine, imprisonment of all adult family members in case someone is found in possession of liquor, seizure of property and punishment of ten years or more, which are harsher than what is provided for other serious crimes,” said an invitee to the interactive programme.
Some of them also said the police and the excise department had been given additional powers in the provisions as all the offences had been made non-bailable. Many others suggested that the government follow the middle path and implement prohibition in a phased manner.
‘Legal perspective’“We had a good interactive programme today [Monday] in which those present gave their feedback on prohibition provisions… We have recorded their suggestions and after considering the legal perspective, we will try to accommodate them,” State Home Secretary Amir Subhani told reporters after the programme.
The State government may also call an all-party meeting on November 21 to discuss the provisions of prohibition law. “We will also form a human chain involving 2 crore people on January 21 across the State to make people aware about prohibition and its social benefit,” said a government official.
However, the opposition BJP leaders took on the Chief Minister for “making a mockery” of prohibition and its provisions through holding Jan Samvad programmes.
“Holding Jan Samvad programmes the government is making fool of others...we’ve already given our suggestions to the government for provisions of prohibition in the state legislature…the BJP is in full support of total prohibition but not in favour of all these draconian and Talibani provisions”, senior state BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav told The Hindu . The Opposition leaders also charged that ever since prohibition has been implemented in the state “illegal sale of liquor, smuggling of liquor from others states and a parallel economy has begun to roll…over four lakh lire of liquor has already been seized so one can well imagine the volume already in circulation”.
