Patna: Millions of people from all walks of life, age groups and professions joined hands on the streets of Bihar today to form what officials claimed was the world’s longest human chain against alcoholism.
Authorities said more than 20 million people came out on the streets and stood in queues for about an hour today to demonstrate against alcohol consumption. The participants included schoolchildren, college students, teachers, leaders, officials and common men who took time from their busy schedules and came together as a mark of solidarity.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who is the man behind the whole idea, himself stood in a queue for about an hour, joining hands together with other participants, to lead the campaign.
“I thank the masses for the huge support to this campaign against alcoholism. The support has laid the foundation of a great social change in Bihar,” the chief minister said in his message, urging them to display similar unity in future as well.
The 11,292-km-long human chain spread across all 38 districts of Bihar was filmed by three Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) satellites, four trainer aircrafts, helicopters and 40 drone cameras. A team of Isro scientists had reached Patna well in advance to record the entire event.
Till now, the world record for the longest human chain involving five million people was held by Bangladesh. It was formed on 11 December, 2004 along 1050-km route from Teknaf to Tentulia.
Almost all political parties except for former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and parliamentarian Pappu Yadav’s jan Adhukar Party (JAP) lent their support to the human chain programme of the Bihar state government.
Bihar imposed total prohibition in April last year and has announced plans to shut down all the 21 alcohol factories from next fiscal as a commitment to save the next generation from the ill-effects of alcohol.
