In ‘dry’ Bihar, policemen of all ranks took a vow on Monday not to consume alcohol and to work to ensure successful prohibition in the State.
Nearly 80,000 policemen across the State, from the Director General of Police to constables, gathered in uniform at their places of work to take the pledge. The policemen also affixed their signature on a form affirming their vow. They declared that they would be liable for legal action if they were found to be involved in any liquor-related activity. Director-General of Police S.K. Singhal too took the vow along with other senior police officials at the police headquarters in Patna.
Stringent law
Bihar policemen had taken the same vow earlier in 2016, 2018 and 2019 too. The NDA government in the State had made prohibition a stringent law in April 2016 with a minimum jail term of 10 years for violators. Since then action has been taken against 430 policemen under the law and as many as 36 of them have either been suspended or are facing departmental and administrative inquiries. Prohibition has been an issue close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s political agenda.
However, the latest survey report of National Family Health had said that people in Bihar still consumed alcohol (15.5%) more than States like Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir did. Illegal liquor, many believed, is easily available across the State at prices two to three times the actual price of a bottle. So far, over 2 lakh people, mostly from poor and marginalised classes, have been arrested under the new law and over 30 lakh litres of alcohol confiscated. In November 2019, the Patna High Court had pulled up the State government for clogging the courts with over two lakh cases related to liquor ban.
