PATNA: Eminent citizens caught consuming liquor will now get ‘special treatment’ in Bihar. The state excise department has prepared a ‘hajat (facility)’ equipped with comforts such as an air conditioner, sofa
set and beds where VIPs found breaking the prohibition rules will be kept in the department’s custody for 24 hours. Posters saying ‘Main Piyakkad Hoon (I am a drunkard)’ would also be pasted outside their houses.
“The posters will include full details of the arrested drunkards. It will make them feel embarrassed socially and will discourage others from consuming liquor,” said Excise Superintendent SK Choudhary, who inaugurated the ‘hajat’ in Samastipur on Saturday.“The VIP hajat been opened on the instruction of the headquarters. The department has furnished it keeping in consideration their lifestyle,” Choudhary told this newspaper.
To qualify as a VIP, you have to be either a people’s representative, a government servant or you should belong to the ‘elite’ society, said officials. To ensure their safety while they are lodged in the facility, a trained dog would keep guard at the gate.
“This has been implemented in Samastipur district on an experimental basis,” a senior excise department official said, adding that the department plans to open such facilities in each district of the state. The rooms are furnished with a sofa set, chair, table, and two beds.
More than 3 lakh people have been booked for drinking alcohol since April 2016, when prohibition was enforced in the state. Many of them have been languishing in the 59 jails across the state. Muzaffarpur and Vaishali are said to be the nerve centres for alcohol supply in Bihar.
After criticism over the stringent provisions made in the state’s prohibition law, Bihar government has given some reprieve to boozers by making amendments.It was decided that those caught drinking alcohol for the first time would be released after levying a fine on them. “Several first-time offenders have benefited from this amendment in the prohibition law,” an excise superintendent said.