The Nitish Kumar government is bringing in several amendments to tighten the prohibition law in Bihar, including one that will make culpable all adults of a family if any member is found drinking, possessing or selling liquor from the premises they occupy. The bill also puts toddy in the category of country liquor and makes tapping of toddy as serious an office as preparation of country liquor. The amendments to the bill were tabled in the assembly on Friday and will be taken up for discussion on Monday. Other stringent changes being made to the law include provisions to confiscate property and impose collective penalty on a village or town.

The government’s bid to reach out to the opposition assumes considerable significance as the BJP has decided to boycott the bill over its “draconian nature”. Sushil Kumar Modi said the BJP was never opposed to prohibition, but it did not like the stringent measures the proposed act envisages.  A team of parliamentary affairs minister Shravan Kumar, excise minister Abdul Jalil Mastan and art and culture minister Shiv Chandra Ram called on senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and ex-CM and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi.