Patna: JD(U) minister for science and technology and technical education Sheela Mandal on Tuesday strongly defended the prohibition policy introduced by the then chief minister Nitish Kumar in April 2016, when he was heading a Grand Alliance govt with support from the RJD and Congress, among others.“Nitish, in 2016, took a bold and courageous step of initiating social reforms by enforcing the prohibition policy. Since then, meaningful social transformation has been visible in the state,” Mandal said while speaking to reporters during the JD(U)’s ‘Jan Sunwaaee’ programme at its state headquarters.Her assertion came amid calls from some NDA allies for a review of the policy. Since the budget session of the state legislature earlier this year, MLAs of NDA partners, prominently Madhav Anand of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha led by Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha, have called for a graded review of the policy.The demand has since moved from a review of the policy to calls for introducing the Gujarat model of prohibition, which was first enforced in 1949 and amended in 2017. Union minister and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi has backed the Gujarat model during a visit to Patna. Earlier, Manjhi had also favoured a review of the policy.Meanwhile, social and macroeconomic experts associated with the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) have called for lifting the ban on the manufacture, sale, storage, transportation, trade and consumption of liquor in Bihar. The NCAER findings were made public last week.In its report, presented at the India Policy Forum 2026, NCAER argued that the prohibition policy had not resulted in a decline in violence against women and that women’s safety had not improved significantly.The report also said the excise department contributed 14% of the state’s revenue for three consecutive financial years before prohibition was imposed, suggesting that the ban had resulted in a loss of revenue for the state.Earlier, between 2022 and 2025, Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor had publicly claimed that illegal liquor trade and consumption in Bihar was worth around Rs20,000 crore despite the prohibition policy.Despite the criticism of the policy, Mandal defended the govt’s position on Tuesday. “Earnings of the poor and middle classes are being spent on the education of their children and for the overall happiness of their families,” she said, adding that prohibition had led to a “reduction in violence against women, increase in family savings, sense of security among women and social harmony.”
