PATNA: Hours after successfully organising a statewide human chain billed to be the world’s longest, a beaming Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday claimed that more than three crore people participated in the “unprecedented, historic” event and that it is time other states took lessons from Bihar to launch prohibition.
Kumar, who himself formally inaugurated the human chain by sending colourful balloons up in the air at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna, also stood for 45 minutes in the chain there, holding the hand of his alliance partners RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and state Congress chief Ashok Chaudhary.
While the government expected that more than two crore people would stand in the estimated 11,292-km human chain spread across the state, Kumar said more than three crore people came out onto the streets and stood holding hands.
The event commenced at 12:15 PM and ended at 1 PM. The sudden departure of the nagging winter chill and a sunny afternoon prompted people, mostly schoolchildren, to come out and form lines along all National Highways, State Highways and major interior roads in all of Bihar’s 38 districts.
“More than three crore people spontaneously participated in this unprecedented, historic human chain, exceeding our expectations, to show their strong resolve in support of prohibition. The event was a grand success,” said Kumar. “Previous record-setting human chains like the one in Bangladesh and Nepal have been much smaller and they were in protest against something. This one is a positive human chain, in which the people displayed their unity in support for something that is good for society,” he added.
“It will have a strong impact. Other states that are staying off prohibition due to worries of loss of revenue should now learn from Bihar and take steps,” said Kumar, who has earlier demanded implementation of prohibition nationwide.
The panoramic view created on the 3,000-km National Highways, 8,285-km State Highways and other rural roads was captured by two ISRO satellites especially roped in by the state government, four trainer helicopters and 20 drones, all fitted with cameras.
The statewide event remained incident free, except minor incidents of schoolchildren falling unconscious at four places and provided medical help promptly. The overwhelming bulk of participants in the human chain was schoolchildren above class V. In many places, more than 90 per cent of the participants were schoolchildren.
The Bihar government’s education department was the nodal agency for this event, a pet project of the CM, and the department’s order to schools to mandatorily send children for the programme earned a rebuke from Patna High Court on Thursday. So the government announced on Friday that participation of people of all ages was voluntary.
“With such huge turnout of people, we have managed to achieve a world record,” said the principal secretary of the education department, RK Mahajan, after the event came to a close at 1 PM. Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh said the people’s participation in the human chain was voluntary.
A team from Limca Book of Records is already in Patna and engaged in assessing the event to include it in its list of world records, said officials.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said the event was successful and appealed to people to shun alcoholic drinks. The Opposition BJP leaders, who were assembled in the western town of Siwan for the state executive committee meeting, also formed a human chain in support of prohibition.