Nitish Kumar and the newly elected government in Bihar is all set to ban the sale of alcohol. Making Bihar a dry state was one of the election mandates, citing a high demand on the ban of sale of alcohol by a lot of women groups. Bihar’s Excise and Prohibition Minister, Abdul Jalil said that the ban should be in place in 6 months with 1st April 2016 being the deadline.

The CM also acknowledged the fact that banning alcohol may lead to some amount of alcohol being sold illegally but said stretch steps will be taken to prevent the same. Since it was a part of the election mandate, this not is as shocking a development as it initially seems.

Earlier this year, the Kerala government decided to impose the same ban but implement it in stages over 10 years.