Bihar proposes capital punishment for sale of spurious liquor

By Sanjay Singh

PATNA: Bihar proposes capital punishment to anyone involved in the sale of spurious liquor that causes death. The extreme measure is part of the Nitish Kumar government’s new excise policy that will come into force on April 1. The Bihar Excise Act will incorporate tough legal provisions to ban trade, manufacture and consumption of country and spiced liquor in the state.

Nitish Kumar reviewed the excise department’s measures for implementing of prohibition and cleared a proposal for making tough legal provisions in the Act.

“He does not want to leave anything to chance. He is personally monitoring the ongoing preparations to ensure successful implementation of the new policy,” a state government source said.

The Bihar excise department has cracked down on illicit liquor traders, ahead of the ban. A control room has been set up in the state secretariat. “The control room is in touch with every district to collect report about raids conducted at possible locations of the illicit liquor trade,” another source said.

The control room has ten toll-free numbers for people to provide information on illicit liquor. “The information will be passed on to the excise superintendent of districts concerned. The officer concerned will swing into action and would have to later send an action taken report within a stipulated time. If the control room fails to get an ATR, it would be brought to the notice of department’s top officials,” the source said.

The excise department also plans to strengthen excise police. The department will install digital locks on each container carrying liquor from neighbouring West Bengal, UP and Jharkhand, which would be monitored with the help of GPS. Composite check posts will also have truck scanners.