Patna (Bihar) [India], March 6 (ANI): Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and Bihar Assembly’s leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav has promised to remove toddy from the Bihar Excise and Prohibition Act if his party is voted to power in the upcoming Bihar Assembly election.
The RJD leader said he held several rounds of talks with representatives of Pasi community, who have been traditionally involved in tapping toddy, following which a decision will be taken to stop the harassment of marginalised people through prohibition.
“After several rounds of talks with the Pasi community, we announced in a press conference today that once our government is formed, we will exclude the sale of natural beverage “toddy” for the livelihood of the Pasi brothers from the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act-2016″ the RJD leader wrote in a post on X. 
The RJD leader also sought to put the blame on State government for deaths due to the consumption of spurious liquor.
“According to an estimate, till now more than two thousand people have died due to poisonous liquor or it can be said that the government has murdered them,” his post read.
Yadav raised the issue of lakhs of people being jailed due to the state’s prohibition law, claiming that mainly people from the Dalit and backward classes get jailed for such offences, and as such, they are being harassed because of the law.
“Under the prohibition law, till now about 12 lakh 80 thousand people have been sent to jail in which 98-99 per cent people are from Dalit and backward classes. Under the guise of this law, poor people have been harassed a lot by the NDA government. A large population of Dalit and Pasi society is being exploited physically, socially, mentally and economically,” Tejashwi Yadav’s post read.
Criticising the Prohibition law, Yadav quoted a court’s observation that the Act has “deviated from its purpose.”
“The Court has said on the liquor prohibition law that “The Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act 2016 has deviated from its purpose. The stringent conditions of the liquor prohibition law have become a convenient tool for the police. The police often work in connivance with the smugglers. New methods have been developed to evade the law,” the RJD leader said.
According to Yadav, a total of 12 lakh 79 thousand 389 people have been arrested under the liquor prohibition act between April 8 2016 and August 31 2024.
“A total of 12,79,387 people have been arrested under the Liquor Prohibition Act during the period from April 2016 to 31 August 2024 of which 5,43,326 were arrested by the Prohibition Department and 7,36,161 by the Police Department,” read his post.
The RJD leader also criticised the State government for an “increase of criminals” in Bihar.
Tejashwi Yadav said, “There is an increase in the number of criminals in the whole of Bihar. The Chief Minister himself gets the criminals released. A new rule is made for them on how to get out of jail.”
Assembly elections in Bihar are likely to be held in October-November. The Election Commission of India has not yet announced the dates of the polls. (ANI)
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