ALCOHOL EMERGENCY IN ‘TOTALITARIAN’ BIHAR

made stringent, how will you stop people from consuming alcohol? When people start fearing the law, they will stop drinking. Today people are smuggling alcohol into the state and selling it at a high price and unless and until we have a stringent law, under which people are sent to prison and denied bail for consuming alcohol, alcohol consumption will not stop,” he said.

According to him, this amendment is aimed at making people keep a tab on their neighbours and inform government officials in case they found their neighbours to be consuming alcohol. “If the neighbour is aware that a person is consuming alcohol and still does not inform the police, he will have to go to prison,” he said.

This amendment, which is likely to be passed easily as the ruling JDU-RJD-Congress combine has enough numbers in the state Assembly, will also have a clause stating that if liquor is found in someone’s house or if someone is found consuming liquor at home, all the adult members of the family along with the guilty will be arrested. “The family members will be responsible for informing the police about the presence of liquor bottles in their houses or else they will also be booked,” Mastan added.

Apart from carrying out search operations on trains entering and passing through Bihar, excise and police departments also check passengers who alight at the Patna airport. Thorough checking is being carried out at the highways connecting Bihar to other states. The Bihar police has also been carrying out search operations and are patrolling the Ganga to stop smugglers from bringing alcohol into the state by boat.

Residents of the state are often visiting neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Nepal just for a drop of alcohol.