Much has been said and discussed about the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act, 1989 and almost every concerned citizen must have weighed the pros and cons of the Act by now. So much has been written about the Act too, both for and against, by an unaccounted number of people across various media platforms so much so that the subject itself has now become a familiar cliché. That, however, does not mean that the Act should be relegated to the back burner because the issues surrounding the Act are real and existent.
The very fact that Nagaland Police have recently sounded an appeal to the public to provide information of sale or distribution of illicit liquor and other contraband items to the nearest police station attests that there are bootleggers and peddlers in your neighborhoods, that there is an invisible network of professional operators in action, and that you are expected to inform the police about them. While this announcement could have been made in the best interest of everyone, as well as, promoting the novel concept of community policing, it inadvertently demonstrates that the state’s police agencies have not been totally successful in implementing the law as far as the prohibition Act is concerned.
There are bootleggers in almost every locality of the town known to most of the residents of that particular locality. The situation is no better in our villages. The police might receive reports and information about sale or distribution of contraband liquor from members of the public and it will be interesting to find out just how many reports the police might receive by yearend.
According to Mokokchung Police, a total of 50 cases were registered under the NLTP Act in 2021 and contraband liquor worth a market value of 52,95,000 rupees were seized. The black market value of the seized items could possibly shoot above three times the market value amount. And 50 cases registered in a single calendar year for Mokokchung district is just the tip of the iceberg. Will the public respond to the call of Nagaland Police?