After hooch deaths, Bihar BJP calls for rethink on prohibition law

CM Nitish Kumar to review liquor policy next week

The prohibition laws which came into effect in Bihar in April 2016 have now caused a divide in the State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a partner in the ruling coalition, after over a hundred people died from consuming spurious liquor — 90 of them this year alone. While one group of the State BJP leaders have demanded a serious review of the prohibition laws another group has supported it.

Cornered from all sides over the recurring hooch deaths, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has now called a high-level review of the prohibition policy on November 16. Mr Kumar also said prohibition in the State was not his private concern but a public matter and people themselves should make it effective, adding that there were always some who indulge in “misdeeds”.

In last four days, over 40 people have died while several others have lost their vision in Bihar’s Gopalganj, West Champaran, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Siwan and Rohtas districts after consuming spurious liquor. In 2021, as many as 90 people died after consuming hooch. And all the victims were from the poorer sections of society, a group whose development the Nitish Kumar-led NDA Government has claimed to be committed to, ever since it came to power in November 2005.