NBCC urged to deliberate on NLTP Act

DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 25 (MExN): While extending full support to the Dimapur Naga Students Union (DNSU) on their stand against the rampant sale of illegal liquor in Dimapur despite a liquor prohibition act in place, the Naga Tribal Union Chümoukedima Town (NTUCT) has called out to the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) to call for a serious deliberation involving all stake holders on the issue. 

In a press statement on Tuesday, NTUCT urged the NBCC to call for a serious deliberation involving all stake holders and come out with a resolution on whether to give more tooth to the NLTP Act or to relax it all together by enacting a law to be strictly followed so that sale of spurious liquor is done away with and the state government also start earning revenue from the sale of quality liquor.  

It contended that any acceptable resolution adopted from such a meeting would be happily acknowledged and approved by the State Government of the day. 

The Union, meanwhile, highlighting their predicament, pointed out that while checking, frisking and raiding of illicit liquor dens and shops is a regular affair under its jurisdiction, many families indulging in this nefarious trade are either expelled or served warning. It lamented that the hardest was to contain the excise and police personnel patronizing the bootleggers by simply accepting cash on regular basis. Which is not to mention that some national workers were going door to door collecting cash from the bootleggers although they are not permitted, it added.

Pointing out that Dimapur district is the epicenter of unabated flow of illicit and spurious liquor which is then transported all over Nagaland under a very powerful syndicate, the Union said it has also come across on a daily basis trucks carrying liquor being escorted by the Army convoy which make it difficult for the state law agency to detain them. 

In such a scenario, the Union has urged the DNSU to march ahead and be prepared to walk the extra mile to protect their future by calling for total ban of illegal and spurious liquor. It also urged all concerned citizens to support and cooperate with them. “The time is ripe for a great uprising, a time to start a revolution to uproot social evils and do away with all sorts of corruption in our society,” it stated.