PATNA: The Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar heaved a sigh of relief on Friday after Patna High Court allowed it to go ahead with the proposed statewide human chain in support of prohibition, scheduled for Saturday, after sternly asking the government to ensure nobody is coerced to participate and that movement of traffic is not restricted. After hearing state chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and DGP P K Thakur offering assurance by their personal appearance at the top court, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Sudhir Singh allowed the event to be organised as per plans. The proposed 11,290-km human chain, which the state government considers a “historic campaign” in support of prohibition, is likely to set a world record for being the longest on earth so far. In fact, after the HC summoned the chief secretary and the DGP on Thursday, the state government promptly issued a circular “in suppression of all the earlier directions”, saying that no school’s teacher or student will be “adversely dealt with in any manner at any stage”.
Citing this circular before the bench, the chief secretary and DGP said that participation in the human chain is going to be “purely voluntary”. “Believing the assurance given by Mr Anjani Kumar Singh, the learned Chief Secretary, to the Court, we observe that the state shall not directly or indirectly, discreetly or indiscreetly force the schools, the schools’ teachers or the students to participate in the ‘Human Chain’ proposed to be held on 21st January 2017, leaving it be a wholly voluntary act,” said the bench in its order. The NGO Forum for Public Interest Litigation (FPIL), which had filed a PIL in this regard, had cited a coercive order issued by the Sasaram district education officer, saying students not participating in the event would be denied benefits of government schemes.
On the issue of the government’s plans to restrict traffic on all state and national highways passing through the state for five hours (10 am to 3 pm) on January 21 because of the event, which would cause cause enormous suffering to the state’s residents, the high court sought to know the action plan in place. The chief secretary, the DGP and additional advocate general Lalit Kishore assured the court that traffic would not be stopped on any route that day but it would be regulated between 10 am and 3 pm.
“The government assured the court that adequate arrangements have been made for alternative arrangements for providing alternative routes for movement of traffic, and where alternative routes are not possible, one lane shall be kept for movement of traffic,” said Shashi Bhusan Kumar, general secretary of FPIL. The high court directed the government to give adequate publicity to the alternative routes and asked it to remain bound by the statements made before the bench by the chief secretary and the DGP. The next date of hearing on the case has been fixed for January 28. Nearly two crore people would stand holding hands along national highways and state highways and other roads across Bihar for 45 minutes - from 12:15 PM to 1 PM - to show their support for total prohibition implemented by the Nitish Kumar government since April 2016.