On the second day of the on-going budget session of Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon tabled the supplementary budget of Rs 2,698 crore. Mondays budget is the third supplementary budget of the of the current fiscal. The State Government will table the annual budget for financial year 2022-23 on March 3.
Meanwhile, despite strong demands from several quarters, the Jharkhand Government today once again ruled out any possibility of liquor Prohibition in the State. On the second day of the on-going budget session of Jharkhand Assembly, Congress MLA from Mahagama Deepika Pandey Singh raised the issue of liquor prohibition in the State.
Raising the issue, Pandey said that due to use of alcohol domestic violence against Women and atrocities against women has gone up. She further said that as use of alcohol is socially evil, the state government should introduce liquor prohibition in the State which will check domestic violence and atrocities against women. Replying to the query raised by Congress legislators, Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that at present the matter of prohibition is not under consideration with the State Government.
Soren said that the government is working on to curb domestic violence, but to say that women are being harassed or domestic violence has increased due to alcohol alone, is not appropriate. There are several other factors behind this; the state government to remove the inequality among women is running various schemes focusing on Empowerment of women. Soren said that the government is also working to make women self-reliant. Under the Phoolo Jhano scheme, 25 thousand women have been linked to self-EMPLOYMENT. All these women used to sell liquor earlier.
The Chief Minister rejecting the proposal for liquor prohibition assumes importance as from April this year, State will get a new liquor policy, after which the system of retail sale of liquor will change in Jharkhand. As per the new excise policy, a private agency will open liquor shops across the State. It will have its own godown in all the five divisions. The agency will order and sell the liquor. The State Government has recently appointed Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) as a consultant by the Jharkhand government. This company has suggested running the shop by private agency on the lines of Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The company says that without increasing the price of liquor, it will get revenue of Rs 2500 crores instead of Rs 1900 crores being available now. However, the expenditure on Infrastructure will have to be borne by the state government. At the same time, the Jharkhand Retail Liquor Vendor Association said that after the implementation of the new product policy, liquor of well-known brands will become expensive.