Take a horse-ride to curb pollution

Patna: Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav has come out with a unique prescription to curb pollution: take a horse-ride on the busy state streets.

Yadav, a first timer lawmaker, is the elder son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad who is himself known for his love for animals.

Taking a lead, Yadav who also holds the additional portfolio of forest and environment himself rode a horse through Patna streets on Thursday to set an example for others who prefer driving costlier cars or bikes to reach their destination.

The development comes barely a day after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar ordered a ban on all 15-year-old diesel vehicles in the state to check air pollution and mooted various measures to save environment.

“There is so much pollution and traffic jams because of vehicles. The people should ride horses or use bicycles to reduce use of vehicles,” the minister told the media on being questioned over his fancy for horse-ride.

Stating that “horse-riding” is the best way to keep environment clean, Yadav said he had been riding horses for so many years. “Horse-riding is my old hobby. I have been doing this right since my mother [Rabri Devi] was the chief minister [of Bihar] but of late I had not taken a horse-ride,” Yadav claimed.

Security detail

Dressed in jeans and woollen pullover, Yadav swung onto the saddle and held the reins of the horse to reach 5, Deshratna Marg which has been allotted to him as a minister in the Nitish Kumar government although he is yet to move in. Yadav lives with his parents at 10, Circular Road, a little away from the new address of the minister.

However, his fancy for a horse-ride proved to a major headache for the police in charge of his security. A number of security personnel too had ride horses while others ran along the health minister mounted on horseback to reach his new destination to oversee the construction works in the new bungalow allotted to him.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar state assembly, Prem Kumar came down heavily on the minister for what he called a “joyride”. “It was a joyride, not horse-ride,” alleged Kumar.

“While poor patients are dying in government hospitals for want of proper Medicare and medicines, our health minister is engaged in joyride,” Kumar said, accusing the father and RJD chief Prasad of running the sons’ ministry by proxy. He added that Prasad’s children are too young to run their ministry saying they are being helped by two sets of advisers — his parents and the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officials. Kumar further asked the RJD chief to allow his sons independently run their ministries.

Torture

Some says minister’s act is simply in tune with his father’s action. Recently during the just-held assembly elections, the RJD chief had announced the launch of the party’s campaigns through horse-carts and planned to hire more than 12,000 horse-carts for this purpose but had to ultimately cancel it after the animal rights activist lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India, describing it as a “torture of animals”. The complaint was filed by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) which supports animal rights and opposes all forms of animals’ exploitation.