A delegation of legislators from Chhattisgarh, which is in Bihar to study the state’s experience with prohibition, on Friday met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his official residence here.
Welcoming the seven-member delegation, the Bihar Chief Minister recounted the circumstances that led him to impose a complete ban on the sale and consumption of liquor in April 2016, a year after he had promised the same to the state’s women.
Kumar asserted that he had personally been opposed to consumption of alcohol since the days when he was an engineering student in the early 1970s.
He also pointed out that prohibition was first imposed in Bihar when the Janata Party formed the government under the leadership of his mentor Karpoori Thakur, though it got scrapped under the subsequent regime.
The visitors lauded the chief minister for showing the will to take the bold step and claimed that during their field study, they found that women of Bihar were highly appreciative of prohibition.
Kumar said that Mahatma Gandhi had always been a staunch critic of the habit of drinking and a survey conducted by the World Health Organisation has linked alcohol consumption to high rates of suicide and vehicle accidents besides a number of ailments.
Headed by veteran Congress leader and former minister Satya Narayan Sharma, the delegation comprises Dwarikadhish Yadav, Rashmi Ashish Singh, Shishupal Sori, Kunwar Singh Nishad, Daleshwar Sahu and Purushottam Kanwar.
-With PTI Input
