After Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio informed the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly that it will permit sale and consumption of liquor through the from April 4-6 under the plea of enhancing tourism based on Section 16 of the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act, objection was not long in coming when the Ao Baptist Arogo Mungdang (ABAM),the apex body of Ao Baptist churches questioned the government\u2019s plea. The government has decided to relax sale and consumption of alcohol for foreign delegates attending the G20 summit at Kohima from April 4 to 6. The particular clause Number 16 of the NLTP Act grants Special Permits to Foreign Sovereign etc. on such conditions and for such periods as may be specified for the use and consumption of liquor by any person who is- (a) a sovereign or Head of foreign country, or (b) an Ambassador, Diplomatic envoy or counsel, Honorary Counsel or trade, commerce or other representatives of a foreign country, or (c) a foreign national on tour to India, and (d) the consort of any person specified in Clause (a), (b), (c) or any relation of such person and dependent upon him. The state government has justified its decision to relax sale and consumption for foreign delegates as described in Clause No.16 of the NLTP Act. Even after decades of NLTP Act being enacted, it is clear that those who have pressurized the government to enact the dry law in 1989 had either not read the fine prints of the Act or were satisfied with the clauses since their primary objective for prohibition was achieved. The determination of those for total prohibition had probably not reckoned with the clause as mentioned. Anyway, the issue of prohibition in Nagaland is a failure as it is in Mizoram where the Act was re-imposed by the MNF government after it promised to do so if voted to power, a promise that received wide support from the powerful Presbyterian Church. In Nagaland the influential NBCC has spearheaded the demand for prohibition through over two decades of movement by way of mass awareness and ultimately fast unto death. So much has been commented and written on the subject of prohibition in Nagaland for many years. For decades after its enactment, there majority of people in Nagaland as well as visitors from outside who have been made to firmly believe that the dry law in Nagaland is a big sham and has only driven sale of alcohol underground, turned illegal business as among the most lucrative. Despite efforts to drive out alcohol from the state, the demand has risen in relation to the lifestyle in metro cities and people of the state being good imitators, have contributed to the one-sided demand against meagre supply and the net result being illegal mafia syndicates rushing to meet the demand. There are strong reasons on the need to have a proper and informed discussion about prohibition instead of merely reducing it to those in favour and those against prohibition. Simply enactment of a dry law has not delivered because it has not received the much-needed response from the individual who makes the choice. Even stringent laws against serious crimes are useless if they are not implemented. So also, the dry law has made many super and filthy rich and they are among those who don\u2019t want the dry law to be repealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio informed the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly that it will permit sale and consumption of liquor through the from April 4-6 under the plea of enhancing tourism based on Section 16 of the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act, objection was not long in coming when the Ao Baptist Arogo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}