LAW TO BRING BACK TOTAL BAN ON LIQUOR SOON: MIZORAM MIN

GUWAHATI: A new law to bring back total prohibition in Mizoram will be tabled in next assembly session, a minister said on Monday.

The Mizo National Front, which returned to power after a decade in December, had promised a complete ban on liquor — a cause also championed by the Church and other social organisations in the Christian majority state in the north-east.

“The law to bring in total prohibition is being drafted. It will be tabled in the assembly in the session in March,” said K Beichhua, minister in charge of social welfare, excise and narcotics department.

As an interim measure, the state government had announced a long dry day spell starting December 21, which was recently quashed by the Aizawl bench of the Gauhati High Court.

“…this court finds that the declaration of the dry days for such a long period from 1.3.2019 to 15.3.2019 is arbitrary and not justified,” Justice Michael Zothankhuma wrote in the order hearing a bunch of petitions filed by bonded warehouse owners and vendors.

In 2014, the then Congress government had brought in the Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition and Control) Act, 2014 to regulate sale of alcohol in a move which partially lifted the 18-year total prohibition in the state.

“I brought in the new law for the good of all Mizos, the drinkers and the non-drinkers,” said Lalthanhawla, the former chief minister. “It brought in good revenue for us too. If this government wants to forego it, I have nothing to say,” he said.

Revenue [from alcohol sales tax] is not more important than the lives of the people

K BEICHHUA, Mizoram minister for social welfare