Rahul will become PM after next Lok Sabha polls: RJD's Tejashwi at Bihar rally
Patna (PTI): RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday exhorted the people of Bihar to make Congress leader Rahul Gandhi the prime minister after the next Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a rally on the third day of Congress' 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Nawada, he also called upon the youth to “root out the NDA” from the state in the assembly elections due later in the year.
Yadav was accompanied by Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders as part of the fortnight-long yatra, which began on Sunday.
The RJD leader described Gandhi as the one “who has given sleepless nights to Prime Minister Narendra Modi” for undertaking the state-wide yatra.
“In the upcoming assembly polls, we shall root out the NDA, which has been running a government comparable to a rickety old car (‘khatara’) for the last 20 years. And, in the next Lok Sabha polls, we shall make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister,” said Yadav, evoking cheers from the crowd.
Donning a baseball cap and a T-shirt, Yadav also had a ‘gamcha’ wrapped around his neck, in an apparent bid to stress that he wished to embody a mix of tradition with modernity.
“We have a vision for a new Bihar,” asserted the former deputy chief minister, who spoke into a hand-held mic, from atop an open vehicle that carried him, Gandhi, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Vikassheel Insan Party president Mukesh Sahni and state Congress chief Rajesh Kumar.
Taking potshots at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, said, “The CM is not in his senses. He is not able to run Bihar. His government has become a copycat. I had promised free power, domicile policy, hike in social security pensions and setting up of a Youth Commission.
“The state government presented these as newly devised schemes. It has remained oblivious to the state’s crying need for better education, health, employment, irrigation facilities and accountability.”
Training his guns at the BJP, Yadav said “they have colluded with the Election Commission to deprive the people of Bihar of their right to vote”.
Many people who are alive, who had voted in the last Lok Sabha polls, have been declared as dead and their names are being deleted from the electoral rolls, he claimed.
Yadav reiterated that the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar was an exercise to “snatch” people's right to vote.
“The SIR is dacoity of votes and we will not allow that to happen. It's a conspiracy of the ruling dispensation to disenfranchise voters in Bihar,” he alleged.
“The BJP and the EC think they can take the people of Bihar for a ride. But, they need to know that in Bihar, we mix lime with khaini (raw tobacco) and swallow it without a fuss. We are Biharis. And as the saying goes, a Bihari can take on anybody,” the 35-year-old RJD leader said.
The yatra, which will also pass through Nalanda, Sheikhpura, Lakhisarai, Munger, Bhagalpur, Katihar, Purnea, Araria, Supaul, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Chhapra and Ara, is scheduled to conclude with a rally in Patna on September 1.
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41 lakh illicit liquor seized, 1.84 lakh arrested in major drive: K'taka Minister tells Assembly
Belagavi (Karnataka) (PTI): The Karnataka Excise Department has conducted a statewide crackdown on illegal liquor trade over the last two years, resulting in arrests and seizures of alcohol, Karnataka Excise Minister R B Timmapur said on Tuesday.
As many as 1,09,017 people were arrested, and seizures included 13.66 lakh litres of liquor and 27.19 lakh litres of beer, he said in a written reply to a starred question by Harihar BJP MLA B P Harish in the Karnataka Assembly.
The Minister said the enforcement drive covered the financial year 2023–24, 2024–25 up to June, and 2025–26 from July to October, targeting unauthorised liquor manufacture, storage, sale and transportation across the State.
"During this period, statewide enforcement drives resulted in a total of 1,84,570 raids against illegal liquor sales,” Timmapur said.
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He noted that 9,179 non-bailable cases and 91,968 bailable and compoundable cases under Section 15(A) of the Karnataka Excise Act, 1965, were registered during the same period.
According to him, there have been no reports indicating that students have become addicted to alcohol due to illegal liquor sales.
The sale of alcohol to minors is strictly prohibited under the Karnataka Excise Act, 1965, and the department has issued periodic instructions to initiate legal action against violators, with strict enforcement and investigation measures in place, the Minister said.
Excise officials are carrying out regular road and night patrols, collecting intelligence, monitoring habitual offenders and conducting raids to identify illicit distillation units, unauthorised liquor outlets and spurious liquor manufacturing centres, he said, adding the department is also enforcing the law to prevent the production, storage, sale and transport of spurious, non-duty-paid and unauthorised liquor.
Regular patrols are being conducted on national and state highways, with suspicious vehicles being subjected to checks.
At the district level, standing committee meetings are held under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioners, and joint operations are carried out with the police and forest departments to curb excise-related offences.
The department is also conducting awareness programmes through Gram Sabhas and in schools and colleges to educate the public and students about the physical, mental and social health hazards associated with alcohol addiction and substance abuse, Timmapur added.
