The Liquor Ban, Part:01

It was 2015(around Chath Puja), I went to the field near my house to play cricket, while i was fielding i overheard some people talking about the recent announcement of liquor ban in Bihar, some of them were joking about it claiming the government won't go forward with it.

After a couple of months later in April 2016, all the liquor shops had been banned, Liquor was officially banned in Bihar, it seemed surreal to me, because i was used to seeing drunks and alcoholics on a general basis whenever i went outdoors. but for the time being i couldn't care less. 

 Nobody could believe that it was actually happening, liquor ban in Bihar seems like a joke, except it wasn't. Everybody was aware of the matter they had been for months but now that it was finally taking place nobody could believe it. There was no alcohol to be found anywhere the police was very weary of any activity. The ban was on all kinds of alcohol including the "desi sharab" or "pouch", hence the people who were first deprived of the liquor were the poor folk, the daily wage workers and laborers. Only people who were well connected could have access to the liquor. 

New Business Opportunities 

The demand for alcohol was rising as time went on, it was a complete chaos, to quote Game of thrones "Chaos is a ladder". For alcoholics it was a time of hardship, for people who condemned it, it was a beginning of an utopia but for some it was an opportunity, opportunity for what one may ask? The demand for alcohol was at a record height and there was no supply hence whoever could provide the supply would dominate the market and charge whatever price they wish. 

Soon enough alcohol was available, though the supply was weak and the prices were double and sometimes even triple what they were before but for the desperate it didn't matter, nonetheless it was available and the supply chain was going to improve the more they sold and hence there was some hope for the alcoholics after all. 

The market demand was huge and the supply wasn't enough, as a result more players jumped in. The government authorities were aware of the arrival of smuggled alcohol and tried to take actions to prevent it but the alcohol smugglers had already a source of income and could pay off the police if caught and the ones who couldn't pay them off or didn't want to pay them off, they were under pressure but it only forced them to be more creative and they came up with ingenious ways to smuggle the product, they fit the bottles where ever they could be it the floor of the vehicle or the roof.

 

Within just a few months alcohol was back in the market and easily available given the buyer has enough money, for people who were well connected availability of the alcohol was not a problem since the beginning. 

Though a large amount of alcohol was being seized but for some reason it did not seem to discourage the smugglers, but on the contrary the alcohol was becoming more and more accessible even in remote areas, the supply chain was becoming stronger and stronger and a black market was in it's developmental stage, which will soon develop into a business of hundreds of crores and destroying thousands of lives. 

In the next part I will dive deep into how it gave rise to the black markets and countless factories of alcohol which is often run by amateurs and end up supplying poisonous alcohol killing many. In the upcoming parts I will also be dissecting whom did it hurt the most and who reaped it's benefits.