Gaumul Rural Municipality in Bajura district has made it compulsory for its drinking population to obtain special ID cards.

Hari Bahadur Rokaya, chairman of the rural municipality, said the system was introduced to curb crime and violence.

“We believe that alcohol abuse is the main cause of domestic violence and other social crimes. So we have enforced the regulation whereby one is not allowed to drink liquor without the ID card issued by the rural municipality,” he said.

The regulation was introduced in mid-June. Only 150 people have obtained the ID cards from the rural municipality so far.

Each individual must pay the municipal office Rs 500 to get the credential which must be renewed every year. And then there is the drink limit and the drinking hour.

 “A person is not allowed to drink more than 180ml of liquor in a day, and the drinking hour has been set from 6pm to 9pm,” said Rokaya.

Visitors, too, are not exempted from the regulation.

They should have ID cards if they want to drink while in Gaumul. Non-compliance could mean a penalty of Rs 2,000 or upwards.

While Rokaya and other officials of the rural municipality strongly feel that regulating the sale and consumption of liquor is really the way to go to curb domestic violence and crime, it remains to be seen if their experiment will achieve the desired goals.  

Sita Thapa, vice chairperson of the rural municipality, claimed ever since the new regulation was put in place, the number of liquor shops have gone down drastically.  

“The whole of Gaumul has 10 licenced liquor shops these days. There used to be at least 200 in the past. The regulation on liquor has made women happy,” she said.