Illegal liquor business thriving in Nagaland- Students urge government to study Prohibition Act
From Bhadra Gogoi
Dimapur: Despite the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act, 1989 in force in Nagaland, bootleggers are doing flourishing liquor business in the State, including Dimapur.
The Dimapur Naga Students Union (DNSU) on Friday urged the state government and all its stakeholders to thoroughly study the boon and bane of the NLTP Act 1989. “It is high time the state government either bring some strict regulations in legalising the sale of liquor or amend the Act,” the union in a statement issued by its media cell said.
It expressed serious concern how the impact of liquor has left many families broken, shortened lives, increased domestic violence, damaged calibre of the youths and also left many mothers in tears.
Despite the presence of the Act, liquor is found in such abundance that though every river and stream in Nagaland may dry up one day but liquor will continue to flow in the state, it said.
The union extended sincere appreciation to the 5 Assam Rifles for busting a liquor bottling plant at 7th Mile on September 2 and seizing huge quantities of liquor at 5th Mile here on September 29. Some people involved in the business were also arrested.
The prompt action and pervasive efforts of the Assam Rifles helped in cracking down illegal activities in the town, which pose a serious threat to the society, it said.
The apex student body of Dimapur said these two incidents had exposed the incompetency and laxity of the Excise Department, the nodal department for enforcing the NLTP Act, 1989.
It appealed to the authority concerned to take note that the main accused in the liquor bottling plant case at 7th Mile is still absconding and nab the culprit at the earliest. It also demanded that the arrested persons be booked and penalized in the most befitting manner.
The union once again warned all the illegal liquor sellers in the town that it will not remain a silent spectator or compromise with the illegal activities.
It pointed out that illegal liquor outlets are “fearlessly present” in every nook and corner and are selling the banned item day in and day out in Dimapur.
As a responsible body, the union said it has “unabashedly”, on a couple of occasions, acted as a law enforcing agency and busted some illicit liquor entrepreneurs, and on several occasions, compelled the law enforcement authorities to do the same.
However, these “promising illicit entrepreneurs” show no sign of fright towards the toothless law which seldom bites, and even if it did, it hardly left any scratches on their resilient tough skins, it added.
