Normal work began in Mizoram on Friday as government offices and business establishments opened two weeks after grand Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Government offices and banks, however, bore an empty look very few customers turned up on the first working day after the celebrations. Sources said educational institutions and party offices will open on Monday.

Traffic appeared thin on the streets of the state capital and other towns following a heavy downpour. As the hill state experienced the first rainfall of the new decade, its temperature ranged between 16 degrees Celsius and 11 degrees Celsius on Friday. No landslide was reported because of the rain, police said.

Christmas and New Year’s Day were the first festivities in Mizoram after the new prohibition law came into force.

The Mizo National Front (MNF) government, headed by chief minister Zoramthanga, had passed The Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition) Bill, 2019 in the Assembly in March last year. The new law, which came into force in May, bans the sale, manufacture, import and consumption of alcohol in Mizoram except in the three autonomous council areas in the southern part of the state.

The government had also banned all fireworks and tightened security during the festivities. People, however, defied the ban to welcome the New Year with a spectacular display of fireworks. The celebrations passed off peacefully.

Sources said a Myanmarese national was held with 382.6gm of heroin, at least 16 liquor factories were damaged and eight people held in this connection, five persons were arrested for selling firecrackers, 23 non-tribals were pushed back to Assam for not possessing ILP and three people, including a minor, were killed in a road mishap during the festive season.