Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, November 16
After a marathon meeting that lasted over seven hours with Ministers, District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police (SPs), Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday refused to relax prohibition laws and directed the cabinet colleagues to visit districts and ensure its effective enforcement.
Nitish Kumar asked the police and excise officials to keep watch on home delivery of liquor in Patna and other cities. They were asked to identify the agents recruiting delivery boys and smash the home delivery network.
Addressing a joint press conference, Additional Chief Secretary Chaitanya Prasad and Director General of Police (DGP) S K Singhal said Chief Minister told the officers to enforce prohibition laws and even chided some of the district SPs for their negligence in preventing illicit distillation. SPs of districts bordering UP, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Nepal were asked to be more alert to ensure import of liquor from other states.
They were asked to deal border entry points to prevent entry of vehicles transporting liquor. DG of police claimed in last five years, 238 policemen have been dismissed from their services on charges of their failure to control violation of prohibition.
The high-level meeting was held following reports of over 50 people in three districts since Deepavali.
RJD reacted to the meeting and it’s spokesman Shakti Singh Yadav termed it a cosmetic.
