Villagers form a human chain on boats in Bochaha block in Muzaffarpur district on Sunday

PATNA: Over 5.16 crore people participated in the 18,034-km long human chain in the state to create awareness about conservation of water and increasing green cover, prohibition and the adverse impact of social evils like dowry and child marriage, said chief secretary Deepak Kumar.

The human chain, the third of its kind in the state, was formed by the state government under its ‘Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali’ campaign. A little over 57.76 lakh schoolchildren from Class I to IV also took part in the human chain but on their respective campuses. Besides, 43,445 prisoners also formed human chain inside the jail premises, he said.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar , who joined the human chain along with deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi , assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary and ‘Water Man’ Rajendra Singh at Gandhi Maidan, thanked people for their record participation. Though the human chain was officially formed from 11.30am to 12pm across the state, people had lined up on the streets much before the event started.

Seven choppers and over 100 drones were used to cover the event. The representatives of Limca Book of Records and Indian Book of Records were present to assess the length of human chain, which was claimed to be the longest so far across the globe. Anjani Kumar Singh, the adviser to CM, said the representatives of Guinness World Records were also invited but they expressed their inability to come due to some technical reasons.

The chief secretary said two human chains were earlier formed in 2017 and 2018. Over 3.5 crore people had participated in 11,292km-long human chain in 2017 while the 2018 human chain was over 14,000km long. “The 2020 human chain has exceeded both the previous events both in length and participation,” he told the media.

Two people, including a government school teacher, died due to cardiac arrest while taking part in the event in Darbhanga and Samastipur districts. While Md Dawood was a teacher at Urdu Middle School, Dighiyar under Keoti block in Darbhanga district, one Reshma belonged to Jitwarpur in Samastipur district. The chief secretary said ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh will be paid to the next of kin of each of the deceased. In the case of the school teacher, his family would also be provided post-retiral benefits. He said both the persons died due to suspected cardiac arrest.

Beaming over the grand success of the event, Nitish said, “This human chain is unique in its kind and a part of ‘Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali’ programme. We will continue to work in mission mode and achieve the target. People barring age and religion have participated in this human chain in large numbers, which shows they have become conscious about the issue.

“This is for the society. If I do some mistake, criticize me as much as you want. But for ‘Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali, everyone should come together and support it.”

Rajendra Singh presented a kalash filled with water to Nitish on behalf of his organization Tarun Bharat Sangh. Nitish said people of Bihar deserved the appreciation and not him.

Atul Bagai of United Nations Environment Programme lauded the efforts being taken in Bihar regarding protection of environment.

