‘Piyoge toh maroge’: Nitish Kumar after being criticised for spurious liquor deaths

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Dec 15: Bihar Chief Minster, Nitish Kumar while rejecting the possibility of giving compensation to the families of those killed by spurious liquor said, ‘ if you drink you will die.’

He said that the people should be more vigilant when the state anyway has prohibition since 2016. Nearly 30 people have died in Chhapra town of Saran district in the recent tragedy. The JD(U)-RJD government has been facing protests by the BJP in both inside and outside the assembly over the laxity in implementing prohibition.

‘Jo sharaab peeyega, wo toh marega hi na… Udaharan saamne hai – peeyoge toh maroge, (If you drink liquor you will die. The example is in front of you. If you drink you will die), Nitish Kumar said in Hindi.

18 dead after consuming spurious liquor in Bihar’s Chhapra

He said that grief should indeed be expressed and then the people be made aware of going to the affected places, Nitish said. He also said that the government has been running massive social awareness programmes, he said in Patna.

He said that even Mahatma Gandhi was in favour of prohibition. You know what the research across the world says about liquor. How many people die because of it. People across the country have been dying due to spurious liquor for long, Nitish Kumar also added.

He also said even when there was no prohibition, people died of toxic liquor. We have to taken strict action against toxic liquor, but people need to be more vigilant. When there is prohibition, the liquor being sold will obviously have something wrong in it, he added.

Remember you should not drink liquor anyway. Most people have agreed with the prohibition policy, but some will make mistakes, he said.

SC slams Punjab govt over illegal liquor menace in state

On Wednesday, Nitish Kumar had lost his cool in the Vidhan Sabha over the protests by the BJP. He threw a ‘are you drunk,’remark at the BJP members.

The states that have prohibition are Gujarat and Bihar. Mizoram and Nagaland too have similar policies but with an exception.