The Bihar Cabinet has approved a proposal for ₹1 lakh financial assistance for the members of poor families involved in the trade of liquor or toddy to ensure a thorough implementation of the prohibition law. The assistance was earlier meant for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes traditionally associated with the profession and was introduced when the prohibition came into force in 2016.
The proposal was among 31 others the Cabinet considered at a meeting chief minister Nitish Kumar presided over on Tuesday.
Additional chief secretary (cabinet) S Siddharth said the assistance scheme was earlier limited to villages. He added it would now be implemented in urban areas as well and all cover classes and communities.
“The prospective beneficiaries…would be given the financial assistance to start their own businesses or trade.”
The Cabinet also approved a proposal to curtail the duration for auctioning movable and immovable properties confiscated under the prohibition law from 210 to 90 days. “As the law stipulated seven months to complete the process, vehicles and other property seized during enforcement of the law had to be kept under safe custody for a longer period,” said Siddharth.