Hard times for Bihar boozers

PATNA, Feb 24.- . These are hard times for boozers in Bihar, with a number of villages enforcing prohibition and women armed with utensils and brooms pouncing upon them in public.Some other villages and a few panchayats punish boozers with punches, besides cracking down on inebriated trouble-makers.The panchayat of Bali in Fatuha block of Patna District has enforced prohibition.A recent resolution adopted at a meeting of villagers recommended five mighty punches and a Rs 251 fine for each of those caught drinking. The village also fixed a penalty for those selling liquor: a Rs 551 fine and 10 punches.The panchayat’s women, armed with ladles, knives and brooms, hit the streets to express solidarity with the village council, dispensing instant justice wherever they chanced upon people drinking liquor. “Liquor is the root cause of all social evils.Several families have been destroyed because of it and we won’t let history repeat itself,” the panchayat’s deputy mukhia, Mr Ranjan Kumar, said. Women are now said to be happy as wife-beating has become less common.“My husband used to return in a drunken state late at night. He beat me up regularly. He has stopped drinking now,” said Mrs Sita Devi.The women of Damdama, in Begusarai District, have set up the Sharab Virodhi Sangathan to punish their husbands. A few days ago, hundreds of them marched in a rally against drinking besides telling Nimachand police of the places where illicit liquor was brewed.The women begin by advising against drinking and penalise their recalcitrant husbands by beating them up.“We had no option. Whatever they earned by selling groundnuts and peanuts came to be spent on drinking. The families starved,” said Mrs Binda Devi, a member of the orgsanisation.