Nitish backs new amended law on prohibition

Patna,(BiharTimes): Even as the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad had his reservation over stringent excise law, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday strongly defended the new Bihar Prohibition and Excise Bill (BPEB, 2016), which was tabled in the Assembly earlier in the day.

“The earlier Act was geared to control possession and consumption of liquor. The proposed new Bill is aimed at imposing complete prohibition," Nitish said outside the House.

"The nature of the earlier Act was regulatory, but the new Act would be prohibitory. The objective of the new Bill is to impose prohibition. Once the decision has been taken to impose prohibition, so should be the law and rules," he said while appealing to the people to cooperate in its implementation.

He said there is no scope for any police or excise department officials to falsely implicate anyone as the new law has doubled the punishment for anyone misusing it. He allayed the fears regarding the new Bill being draconian saying its provisions regarding punishment and penalty were the same as in the earlier prohibition Act. Incidentally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday suggested that 'toddy' had not been listed among intoxicants and traditional liquor in the new Bill, while former CM and leader of the RJD legislature party in the legislative council Rabri Devi cautioned people against "rumours" being spread on the issue of the proposed Bill.

When pointed out that the opposition has decided to oppose the proposed new Bill, the CM appealed to lawmakers, cutting across political parties, to unanimously pass the Bill, as they had done with regard to the earlier Bill in the Budget Session.