Tears flow, alcohol dries up in Bihar as Nitish imposes ban on sale of liquor

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has kept one of the promises that he made before the Bihar assembly elections - a ban on the sale of liquor in the state.

The Chief Minister on 26 November announced a ban on the sale of alcohol from 1 April 2016.

Five months ago, the Janta Dal United had said that the state government does not want a parallel alcohol economy to be launched.

While campaigning for the state assembly elections, Kumar reached out to women voters and promised them that he would ban alcohol in the state if voted to power again.

Soon after taking office, Abdul Jalil Mastan, Excise and Prohibition Minister had said that the state government was planning to impose a ban on the sale of liquor at the earliest.

"We will start work to impose a ban on liquor in Bihar. It would be visible in the next six months," he had said.

The JD(U) had said that the demand for banning the sale of liquor had been made by many. A number of people, most of them women - as the JD(U) claims - from the Dalit and backward castes had been at the forefront of protests against rising liquor consumption in the state.