Liquor free-hand jab at Nitish
2 min readPatna: Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Friday alleged chief minister Nitish Kumar has given a free hand to JDU leaders for liquor sale, a day after three people were arrested in Supaul consuming liquor.
The trio arrested were drinking in an SUV owned by a JDU leader.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son questioned the prohibition law, considered a draconian legislation. He said: “I fail to understand what kind of a dry state Bihar is, when every day liquor is seized and people are arrested for violating the law. However, the most crucial part is that leaders of JDU, led by chief minister Nitish Kumar, are being caught. Thursday’s incident is shocking – liquor bottles were found from the SUV of the JDU’s farmers’ cell general secretary in Supaul district.”
Be it Supaul or Siwan, only the ruling party leaders are caught violating the law, Tejashwi claimed. He accused Nitish of giving permits to his leaders to conduct liquor business in dry Bihar.
“The new district- and state-level appointments in the JDU on the instruction of the national president (Nitish) are actually permits to sell liquor. The certificate is not given to strengthen the organisation but to sell and distribute liquor,” Tejashwi said.
The leader of Opposition in the Assembly demanded that the way the government takes pride in arresting over 1 lakh people for violating prohibition, it must also release a list of officers against whom action has been taken for the entry of contraband.
“Two years of total prohibition will be complete in April and Nitish ji takes pride in arresting around 1.2 lakh people. What about the list of officers against whom action has been taken for allowing liquor to enter the dry state? How many officers have been sacked in proportion to the people being arrested, because it is not possible for liquor to enter Bihar without the support of local officers,” Tejashwi said.
If liquor enter Patna, it crosses four to five districts where excise and police officials check vehicles round the clock, he said. “It is hard to believe that liquor enters Patna without being caught. This can mean only two things – either all the officers deputed are good for nothing or they are also involved in minting money. There cannot be a third reason,” Tejashwi said.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
