Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 5
Come Sunday and owners of restaurants in Karbi Anglong are the happiest men, greeting and welcoming customers in their best smile and manner and not forgetting the superb service they provide - just press a button and they are there ready to serve you your favourite brand of liquor.
Sunday, is a ‘Holy Day’ for the Christians but for most of the Dimapurians, it is just a ‘Holiday,’ a time to hang around boozing, enjoying either in the commercial hub of the ‘Dry State’ or in neighbouring Karbi Anglong, where alcohol is more easily available than drinking water. And it is interesting to see that most of the customers are Nagas and adding to that, a number of new restaurants are coming up to serve the people from ‘Dry State.’
With the imposition of ‘Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition Act’ in 1989, the state government has been incurring huge losses in revenue in terms of crores of rupees every year. On the other hand, Assam, its closest neighbour, has been reaping the harvest of the ‘Prohibition Act’ due to its regulated ‘wet’ status.
According to reports, the government had since long time back realized the futility of enforcing the Prohibition Act in the state but said that it could not lift the ban as they do not want to hurt the sentiments of the Church, as well the mothers, who earlier spearheaded the movement on banning the sale of liquor in the state. An alternative arrangement mooted by the state government to partially lift prohibition was out rightly rejected by the Church and the mothers. Dr. T. M. Lotha, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, has stressed on the urgent need for a much larger workforce in the Excise department. In the recently concluded Assembly Session, he also talked of amending the total prohibition Act after consultations with Nagaland Baptist Church Council and the Naga Mothers Association.
It may be mentioned that the Act which has been enforced since 1989 has failed miserably till date with truck loads of liquor flowing into “dry Nagaland” everyday. Pointing out that most of the liquors are smuggled through the porous borders, Dr.Lotha claimed that even if it was brought through the main road, ‘we would need huge manpower to conduct frisking and checking to stop such huge transportation of liquor.’ The Minister also admitted that despite the Prohibition Act in place, huge quantity of liquor continues to flow into the state from neighbouring Assam, the target of the “benefit.”
