PATNA: Will Rajasthan implement the Bihar model of prohibition? The question assumed significance in the wake of the visit of a five-member team from Rajasthan to Bihar on the instructions of the chief minister of that state Ashok Gehlot.
According to sources in the state prohibition and excise department, a five-member team headed by Puja Bharti Chhabra arrived here late on Monday to study the prohibition being promulgated by the Nitish Kumar government. Chhabra is the national president of the anti-liquor campaign in Rajasthan.
The members of the visiting team will interact with the officials of the state prohibition and excise department and also visit some districts to see how prohibition law was being enforced in Bihar. The places to be visited by the Rajasthan team have, however, not been disclosed so far.
The team will also hold meetings with officials of home, road safety, finance and taxation department, social justice and cooperative department, health and medicine department, women and child development and statistics department.
A senior official of the state prohibition and excise department said the Rajasthan government is concerned after the death of 13 people in recent hooch tragedies in Bharatpur and Bhilwara. “This may have prompted chief minister Ashok Gehlot to send a team to Bihar,” the officer said.
The visiting will find out the loss of revenue due to prohibition in Bihar and the steps taken by the government to deal with the financial losses. “We will cooperate with the visiting team,” prohibition department joint secretary Krishna Kumar Singh said.
The members of the team will later submit their reports to chief minister Gehlot. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's social reform campaign came to an end on Sunday with his last meeting in Madhepura. Bihar was declared a dry state in April 2016.