Monsoon session of bicameral legislature in Bihar to begin

The monsoon session of both houses of the legislature in Bihar, scheduled to begin tomorrow, is likely to be stormy with the opposition poised to corner the state government on the issues of law and order and alleged faulty implementation of prohibition law.

The brief session, which will end on July 26, will have a total of five working days during which the Nitish Kumar government is scheduled to table amendments to its excise and prohibition law.

The amendments cleared by the state cabinet recently are likely to do away with stringent provisions like compulsory imprisonment for even a first-time offender and punishment to the owner of a property or vehicle where liquor is found to have been stored.

The first supplementary budget for the current financial year is also on the list of businesses scheduled to be taken up during the monsoon session.

Other issues likely to be raised in the legislative assembly as well legislative council during the monsoon session are the prevailing drought-like situation in the state and the demand for grant of special status/assistance for the speedy development of Bihar.

Spokesman and MLA of the main opposition party, the RJD, Bhai Virendra said we will highlight, on the floor of the House, the governments abject failure in controlling law and order which is evident from the steep rise in the incidence of crimes against women.

We would also draw the attention of the house towards the misuse, by the government machinery, of the prohibition law under which many poor and innocent people have been sent to jail even as illicit liquor trade continues to flourish because of patronage by bureaucrats and members of the ruling parties, he alleged.

Deputy leader of the ruling JD(U) in assembly Shyam Rajak said "the government is ready to reply to any question, raised by the opposition on any issue provided they do so as per norms without disrupting the proceedings of the House. Our ministers are competent enough".

"The RJD, while alleging misuse of provisions of the anti-liquor law, should come up with specific examples instead of making vague allegations. The party should remember that it was in the government when ban on alcohol was imposed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar two years ago and its top leaders had even taken part in a state-wide human chain organized in support of the radical step", Rajak said.

He also said "before attacking the government in Bihar over the issue of law and order, they are requested to study a report on the crime situation in the country tabled in the Parliament. They would learn that law and order in the state is better than in most other states".