PATNA: Ek-ek ghar me pata karen ki kaun paksh mein hai, kaun khilaf hai (Visit every home to find out who is in support of the liquor ban and who is against it).
I don't want a report based on a survey of limited areas,CM Nitish Kumar said.The liquor ban came into force in April 2016, when Nitish headed the first Mahagathbandhan government that would fall apart a year later with him switching allegianceto BJP.He tried to makeprohibition a poll plank in UP and Jharkhand, too, but didn't get support from his allies."Ab saat saal ho gaya; hum chhorne wale nahin hain (It's been seven years; am not one to let go)," Nitish said of prohibition in Bihar, claiming that "only the affluent who love to drink" were against him.Harking back to the pre-2005 ere, when Lalu Prasad's RJD was in the saddle for 15 years, the chief minister said none would dare to move out of their homes after dark then, "but people today roam about in the city till late in the night".
A survey last February showed that 1.8 crore people had quit drinking in the state.
A similar study in 2018 showed 1.6 crore giving up liquor.Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi has been among the most vocal critics of prohibition, saying Dalits have borne the brunt of it."Five lakh people have been jailed, of which 3.5 lakh are labourers who may have consumed a little liquor after a hard day's work.
We don't want such a law," Manjhi is quoted as saying.He recently accused Nitish of "killing Dalits in instalments", alluding to hooch deaths that have been a feature of the prohibition era.BJP has also been seeking a review of the liquor law, saying it has failed to serve its purpose.Nitish said at the Patna event that the state government was ready to bear the required expenditure on another study - the caste survey cost the exchequer Rs 500 crore - since there was a debate on whether people wanted a liquor ban or not.