Nitish Kumar briefs Chhattisgarh team about success of Bihar liquor ban

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said a recent survey conducted by the Patna-based Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) revealed that around 1.82 crore people have shunned consuming alcohol in Bihar since the enforcement of total prohibition in April 2016.
While interacting with a 7-member delegation of legislators from Chhattisgarh, Nitish cited the survey report and said 99% women and 93% men in Bihar were in favour of the total prohibition. He also told the visiting MLAs that earlier some people used to claim that tourist footfall would dwindle in Bihar after prohibition, “but the number of tourists has increased in the state after that”.
The Chhattisgarh team is in the state since Thursday to study the Bihar model of liquor prohibition and its successful implementation in the state. The delegation called on Nitish on Friday as part of its 3-day tour programme. The Bihar CM said that the state government had been receiving a revenue of Rs5,000 crore per annum from alcohol trade, but people of the state had been spending around Rs10,000 crore per annum on liquor consumption.
“Now, after the enforcement of ban on liquor, people are spending that money on other necessary requirements. Thus, the sales of vegetables, fruits, milk etc have increased manifold. The living standard of people has also improved,” Nitish said.The CM said his government had been continuously running different campaigns to make people aware about the benefits of prohibition.
The delegation is headed by MLA Satyanarayan Sharma with Dwarikadhish Yadav, Rashmi Singh, Shishupal Sori, Kunwar Singh Nishad, Daleshwar Sahu and Purushottam Kanwar as its members.
Bihar’s prohibition, excise and registration minister Sunil Kumar, chief secretary Amir Subhani, additional chief secretary (prohibition) K K Pathak, Chhattisgarh’s excise secretary Niranjan Das, Bihar’s excise commissioner B Kartikeya Dhanji and ADG (prohibition) Amrit Raj, chief executive officer (Jeevika) Rahul Kumar and many other senior officers were present on the occasion.