Keeping one of his promises made before the Bihar Assembly elections, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced a ban on the sale of liquor in the state. Bihar will go dry from April 1, 2016, Nitish Kumar announced on Thursday. Making the announcement at an official function to mark Prohibition Day in Bihar, Nitish Kumar said, “I know people will say that even after banning liquor it will be sold illegally, if it happens then we will deal with that strongly.”

This is the first major announcement by Nitish Kumar since he was sworn in as Chief Minister for the fifth time last week. In July, Mr. Kumar had declared that alcohol prohibition would be imposed if he retained power in the assembly elections. Defending the move to impose the ban after a five months gap, the JDU said that the government did not want a parallel alcohol economy to be launched, and hence kept the time in hand to work out on the logistics.

Mr. Kumar said, “The poorest of the poor had been consuming liquor, badly hitting their families and their children’s education. Increasing liquor consumption was also a major cause for domestic violence, particularly against women, and had contributed to a rise in crimes. Women are suffering more than anyone else due to increasing liquor consumption.”

He further added, “Women in the state started an anti-liquor campaign, I really appreciated that. Those villages which will help us in our campaign against liquor will be awarded.”

“In 1977-78 we tried to impose prohibition but it was not effective. I have instructed my officials to start working towards this and implement this from the next financial year,” Mr. Kumar said

Bihar Excise and Prohibition Minister Abdul Jalil Mastan had earlier said that the state government would soon take steps to impose a liquor ban. It is not clear whether the ban will be restricted to country liquor or will include all alcohol.

According to reports, the revenue collection of excise department registered a more than 10-fold jump, from Rs.319 crore in 2005-06 to Rs.3, 650 crores in 2014-15. It is not known how the government plans to make up for this loss of revenue.

BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday vowed to support a liquor ban. Meanwhile, LJP leader Chirag Paswan said, “Welcome move of banning the sale of liquor. Let’s see how successful it is.”

Last year in Kerala, the Congress government has also announced that it will be totally alcohol-free within 10 years. Hundreds of bars were forced to shut down across the state, and alcohol is served only in five-star hotels. After protests, bars were recently allowed to sell beer and wine.