Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said all political parties were together on imposition of a total ban on sale and consumption of alcohol in Bihar, put into action after in-depth study of prohibition in various States.
Mr. Kumar, who had announced a total ban on liquor, country and spiced as well Indian-Made Foreign Liquor, in the State after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said all political parties were together on prohibition.
Mr. Kumar said efforts on imposition of liquor ban have been made from time to time.
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“Mahatma Gandhi, Jayprakash Narayan, Karpoori Thakur and Morarji Desai were in favour of prohibition and made attempts for it,” he said.
“We have implemented total ban on liquor only after studying different aspects and experiences of varied States,” he said.
He laughed away media reports that said Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor was against liquor ban, and because of which, Mr. Kapoor said, he would not come to Bihar.
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“It seems as if he used to come every now and then to Bihar before prohibition,” Mr. Kumar told reporters, dismissing criticism from the actor without taking his name.
The Bihar CM did not give much importance to criticism that prohibition would entail loss to State exchequer.
“But, this is not a moral trade. Alcohol is not good for health,” he said.
“The money saved due to ban on liquor would be spent on other sectors like health, education and nutrition which would improve market economy of Bihar,” he said.
Heralding the decision to declare Bihar a dry-State, Mr. Kumar said an environment was being created for social change.
“The success of ban on booze would spread as ‘Jan Andolan’ (mass movement) across the country. Encouraging messages have been received from different areas on prohibition in Bihar,” he said.
In reply to a question on drought, Mr. Kumar said there was an “alarming” situation in the country.
Water table was going down in Bihar too due to inadequate rainfall, he added.