3 reasons why Nitish Kumar's prohibition won't work in Bihar
In his first major announcement after returning to power, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar announced on November 26 that his government is formulating policies and laws to ban liquor in the state from April 1, 2016. With this, Nitish has kept a promise which he had made in the run up to the elections.
The chief minister has met a major demand of the women, who turned out in larger numbers than the men to exercise their franchise. Nitish himself stated that he appreciated the anti-liquor campaign launched by the women in the state. He has also said the government will award those villages which will help it in its drive against liquor.
Nitish's step is commendable for more reasons than one. Prohibition will save the lives of several men; it will save several families from getting destroyed as many men squander whatever they earn on liquor; it will also check physical abuse and mental torture of women as several men turn violent after getting inebriated; and it will help improve the law and order situation in the state as several crimes take place after men get drunk.
However, effective implementation of prohibition will not work for the state and these are the three reasons why:
1. Bootlegging
Nitish may have followed the Gujarat model by announcing that Bihar will become a dry state after four months but the BJP-ruled state itself is finding it difficult to effectively implement prohibition. Gujarat is one of the four states which has been following the prohibition policy for several decades to uphold Gandhian values. But prohibition here is a sham. Liquor is freely available while bootleggers are available throughout the state. Truckloads of liquor crates enter from neighbouring Maharashtra and Rajasthan after the palms of road transport, excise, police and other government officials are greased. This has helped the liquor mafia to thrive at the expense of the state. The same will happen in Bihar. Liquor will be smuggled into not only from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal but also from Nepal with which the state shares a long and porous border.
2. Hooch manufacturing
The availability of illicit liquor is also a result of the prohibition policy. In a state like Bihar where cottage firearm industry flourishes, it is anyone's guess whether the government will succeed in checking the cottage hooch industry which runs openly in the rural areas. It will still operate, only that the lower level police and administrative officials will earn illegal money. Moreover, preparation of hooch on several occasions go horribly wrong. No one has died after consuming licensed liquor but several lives have surely been lost in hooch tragedies.
3. Revenue loss
Bihar will lose about Rs 3,000 crore revenue annually, which it earns through sale of liquor. An already cash-starved state will ill-afford to bear this loss. It was under Nitish that the number of liquor vends saw a remarkable jump - from 3,436 in 2006-07 to 5,467 in 2012-13. The state's excise revenue also shot up to Rs 2,765 crore in 2012-13 from Rs 525 crore in 2007-08. This accounts for 17.65 per cent of the state's revenue, according to official records.
Even a comparatively well-off state like Gujarat feels the pinch of prohibition in terms of revenue. With Narendra Modi as the then Gujarat chief minister, the state had demanded a compensation package of Rs 3,000 crore from the Centre for prohibition in the state in 2009. Nitish will also be forced to raise the demand for special package from the Centre by factoring in the revenue loss due to prohibition. If the Centre obliges, it will be well and good. Otherwise, the state will be hard-pressed to cut corners from developmental and welfare programmes to compensate for the loss.