Liquor ad in Patna mall pulled down in 53 minutes

Liquor may have been banned in Bihar, but advertisements - surrogate or otherwise - of liquor firms, adorn prime locations in the heart of Patna.

Liquor may have been banned in Bihar, but advertisements - surrogate or otherwise - of liquor firms, adorn prime locations in the heart of Patna. This was till about a few hours back.

The ad which was pulled down from a Patna mall, on Friday. (Photo: HT reader)

For, it took all of 53 minutes for the Patna district administration to pull down an advertisement of a liquor firm, occupying prime space at an upmarket shopping mall in Patliputra Colony here on Friday evening.

This reporter received through WhatsApp a photograph of the ad at the shopping mall from an avid HT reader, Dr Satyajit Sinha. The HT forwarded the photograph to district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agrawal at 8.15pm, seeking his comments.

Busy at the Ramnavami function, the DM did not take the call, but replied through WhatsApp at 9.08pm, “The assistant commissioner, excise, is there to seize it.”

Agrawal later called up HT and said, “We have seized the advertisement and will issue a show-cause notice to the mall management. The ad was put up in March. Promoting a brand means you are encouraging the sale of its products. Marketing and selling of liquor is prohibited in Bihar after the total liquor prohibition (on April 5). We are issuing licence to liquor firms only to export.”