In dry Bihar the government has now decided to set up factories to make glass bangles out of seized liquor bottles through its Rural Livelihoods Promotion Programme, which is locally known as JEEVIKA. In Bihar, liquor had been banned since April 5, 2016 and every month lakhs of illegal liquor bottles were seized which were crushed with JCB (earth movers and excavators) machines and other vehicles.
“Seized illegal liquor bottles during raids were earlier crushed and treated as garbage but now we’ll give these bottles to JEEVIKA workers who were trained in making glass bangles. The State Excise and Prohibition department has allocated ₹1 crore to set up a glass-making factory in Patna and send JEEVIKA women for training in bangle-making to other States”, said Bihar Excise Commissioner B. Kartikey Dhanji. Funded by the World Bank, JEEVIKA is a rural social and economic empowerment programme which comes under Bihar’s rural development department. “Later, if the plan succeeds, we’ll consider increasing the number of such glass bangle-making factories in the other parts of the State as well”, Mr. Dhanji added.
Ever since liquor was banned in Bihar in April 2016, lakhs of illegal liquor bottles were being seized in different parts of the State, either by the district police officials or the excise department personnel. In August this year 3.7 lakh litres of liquor were seized in over one lakh raids against those involved in illegal trade and manufacturing of liquor. Of late, the police and the excise department officials have been using drones, ALTFs (Anti-Liquor Task Force of police personnel) and choppers to locate illicit liquor manufacturers and traders. Several illegal breweries on the banks of rivers in several districts were located through drones and demolished by the police and the excise personnel.
