Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 20
With discussions being held over the partial lifting of the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act at the recently concluded Nagaland Legislative Assembly session, Advisor for Labour, Employment & Skill Development, Excise, Moatoshi Longkumer commented that the file is with the cabinet. “So the cabinet is the overlord, let us wait for their decision,” he said.
Longkumer, speaking with media persons during the inauguration of the Dimapur Municipal Council office building on September 20, went on to state that the decision over whether to lift the act or not lies with all the stakeholders. All are stakeholders, including the public. “Let the public give a consensus opinion,” he added.
Given the hard-line stance taken by Church bodies against lifting the act, he expressed his view that drinking should not be singled out as the only moral sin. Rather, he said “when you talk about spirituality, drinking of liquor is not the only sin. There are many sins, gluttony, love of money is also a sin.”
When asked about the open practice of selling liquor across the State in spite of the Act being in place and why the Excise department has not taken action against it, he cited the lack of manpower as the greatest challenge. As reiterated in the State Assembly, he said the Excise dept possess a total of 336 staffs out of which 40 are vacant. That is not enough to man even Dimapur, let alone the entire State, he said.
