Madhya Pradesh is headed towards total prohibition, as Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced that all liquor shops across the state would be closed in a phased manner.
“Alcohol prohibition will be implemented in the entire state by closing all liquor shops in a phased manner,” Chouhan said, while addressing a programme at village Neemkhera (Heerapur) of Narsinghpur district recently.
“In the first phase, the state government closed all the shops falling within a radius of 5 km from the banks of river Narmada on either side. In the next phase, the liquor shops would not be allowed to open in residential localities, near educational institutes or religious places,” he said.
Chouhan reiterated that a de-addiction drive would also be launched in the state soon.
During the past one month, several protests against liquor shops have been reported from across the state. On April 5, protesters had burnt two vehicles and damaged four in Bareli town of Raisen district when the excise department was trying to shift the liquor shops from a highway to a local residential colony. On April 3, BJP MLA from Indore-1 Sudarshan Gupta had demanded total liquor prohibition in the state while extending support to the agitation against the opening of liquor shop.
Besides, protests were also reported from several parts of the state including Indore, Sagar, Burhanpur, Chhatarpur, Vidisha, Narsinghpur, Satna, Morena, Dewas and some other towns during last one month.