| Questions |
Answers |
| What does Bihar’s new liquor law say? |
- The Bihar Excise (Amendment) Act, 2016, that came into force on April 1, 2016.
|
| What are the key provisions of the law? |
- It gives the previous Act of 1915 more sharper legal teeth, and prescribed the death penalty for the manufacturers, suppliers and sellers of hooch in case of death as a result of consumption of spurious liquor.
- It banned the manufacture, transport, sale and consumption of country liquor in the state — and restricted the sale of non-country or ‘Indian Made Foreign Liquor’ (IMFL) to 655 outlets of the Bihar State Beverages Corporation in towns and municipal corporation/council areas.
- 90 of these 655 outlets were in Patna; in all, the state has consisting 5,500 IMFL and country liquor shops. On April 6, however, the government announced a tightening of the ban, extending it to IMFL immediately. This extension of the ban has made Bihar an entirely dry state, like Gujarat.
- There are separate provisions in the Act to protect women and children. The Act lays down a compensation of Rs. 4 lakh in case of death due to consumption of spurious liquor, and financial help of Rs. 20,000 for the treatment of medical complications. The Act also empowers district magistrates to impose a collective fine on a village or locality that shows a trend of frequently violating the new excise law. The District Magistrate can determine the fine on the basis of the seriousness of violations.
|
| Are there no exemptions to the liquor ban? |
- The only exemptions are available to addicts, who can get liquor against a doctor’s prescription, and Army cantonment. Toddy (the fermented extract of the sugar palm, an intoxicant that is consumed widely in the villages and by large numbers of the urban poor) is exempt as well, but it can be sold only with some restrictions.
|
| Why are there apprehensions? |
- The tightening and extension of the ban came amid apprehensions that the amended law, which placed enormous power in the hands of the police, district collector, excise department and other officials, could be misused.
- Districts bordering Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Nepal were seen as being especially vulnerable to corruption and widespread harassment of people.
|