By Matters India Reporter
Patna, Jan. 19, 2020: Staff and students of St Xavier’s College of Management and Technology in Patna joined millions who came out on the streets in Bihar on January 19 to form human chains to support the state government’s environment conservation campaign and social reform measures.
More than 500 students, along with their principal Jesuit Father T Nishaant, formed the human chain at Digha Ghat, a Patna suburb, to highlight the government’s Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali (water-life-greenery) campaign and drive against liquor, dowry and child marriage.
They also displayed placards and raised slogans exhorting people to save water and conserve environment.
The students were part of what the government claimed was the world’s largest human chain. An estimated 42.7 million people reportedly joined hands across 16,000 km in the state.
Members of the college’s Xavier Theatre Club also staged a street corner play aimed at creating awareness against unchecked wastage of water, deforestation and on hazards of climate change.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launched the campaign on August 9, 2019, on the occasion of Bihar Prithvi divas (Bihar earth day).
The state cabinet approved 245.24 billion rupees for the campaign to be implemented over a period of three years.
An Indian Administrative Service officer heads the project as its CEO. Parliamentary Affairs and Rural Development Minister Shrawan Kumar heads a state-level committee to monitor its implementation.
The project aims to identify and renovate ponds and other traditional modes of water conservation.
The chief minister organized the latest event to raise awareness about his government’s efforts for environment preservation and social reformation.
The chief minister, flanked by his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, stood holding hands at the Gandhi Maidan in downtown Patna, the state capital, where the participants formed a pattern resembling the map of Bihar.
Opposition parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), however, criticized the event, dubbing it as a colossal wastage of public money and government resources.
Kumar, whose third consecutive tenure as the chief minister would end later this year.
Speaking after the function, Kumar thanked the people of the state for making the event a success and said, “I hope the number of people who have participated exceeds what we had intended to achieve.”
Official sources said efforts were made to include 40 million people, “more than the population of countries like Canada and Australia,” in the drive and the exact figure would be available later.
This is the third human chain organized at the instance of Kumar, the first being in 2017 followed by another a year later.
RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav told reporters, “We would have appreciated, had the chief minister organized a rozgar shrinkhla (job chain) for providing jobs to unemployed youth – instead of the farcical manav shrinkhla (human chain).”
The party’s national vice president Shivanand Tiwary said the event was a flop show and shared a number of pictures on social media in which the chain could be seen broken at a number of places and children aged no more than 10 years made to stand in the cold weather.