PATNA: Elated over the recent success of drones, the Bihar government has deployed a four-seater chopper to carry out operations against illicit liquor smugglers. The chopper hired on rent will trace the locations where liquor was being manufactured in violation of new prohibition law in the state.
On the very first day on Tuesday, senior officials of the state prohibition and excise department made aerial survey of the places along the Ganga river being used for brewing country liquor.
The chopper returned to the airport in the evening. The chopper is being used for the first time to trace the liquor brewing units located in remote villages, considered to be inaccessible for the police and excise department officials.
A senior official of the prohibition and excise department said the chopper has been hired on rent for enforcing prohibition law more effectively on the directive of the chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Earlier, altogether 17 drones were pressed into service to identify the places being used for liquor manufacturing. Raids were conducted on the basis of images shared by drones. Subsequent raids yielded tangible results.
This could be gauged from the fact that a total of 1,250 liquor manufacturing units were demolished and 2,327 persons arrested by the personnel of anti-liquor task force across the state between February 1 and 16.
The operation was carried out on the basis of specific images of the spots obtained with the help of mini-size Drones. In all, 34, 362 litres of country liquor and 44,786 litres of foreign liquor were seized during the period.
During his 'samajik sudhar abhiyan' in Bhagalpur on Tuesday, the chief minister exhorted the jeevika workers to come forward to assist the government agencies in making the prohibition a grand success.
“Prohibition was enforced in Bihar on the specific demand of jeevika workers, who narrated their woes at a meeting held in Patna ahead of the assembly polls in 2015. In April next year, it was implemented. It's now your turn to make the campaign a grand success,” he added.
Nitish revealed that 1.6 crore people have given up alcohol ever since the state was declared dry in April 2016. A similar survey was conducted in 2018. “However, this time I asked them to do it more religiously,” he pointed out.