A life-size statue of Lalu Prasad's mother Marachhia Devi at Phulwaria village in Gopalganj. A life-size statue of Lalu Prasad's mother Marachhia Devi at Phulwaria village in Gopalganj.

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad may have been talking a lot about woman empowerment in Bihar for long but the panchayat in his ancestral village Phulwaria has imposed a blanket ban on girls using cell phones or wearing jeans.

Phulwaria is the second panchayat to have imposed such a ban on girls in the Gopalganj district.

Last week, Singha panchayat under the Hathua block had issued a similar diktat on the plea that the impressionable girls were going astray because of the western influence.

Its village headman Krishna Choudhary, however, said that the ban would be enforced through consent of the local people without exerting any pressure on them. The ban will come into effect from January 1.

Holding a meeting on Monday, the village council of Phulwaria decreed that school and college-going girls would not be allowed to use mobile phones. Not only this, they would also not be permitted to wear jeans.

Presiding over the meeting, Phulwaria panchayat mukhia (village head) Savitri Devi said that the area had witnessed several incidents of eve-teasing and other crimes against women because of the rampant use of cell phones besides western influence.

She said that the panchayat had been receiving several complaints of such incidents in recent times.

As per the decision taken at the panchayat meeting and which was endorsed by a large number of villagers, girl students would no longer be allowed to carry mobile phones to their schools and colleges.

The guardians of the girl students from the area have also been also told to prevent their daughters from taking their phones outside their houses.

Making an appeal to the parents of the girls to implement its decision, the panchayat also decided that its decision would be publicised through the public address system to make villagers aware about the negative impact of the mobiles and the western culture on society. It said that suitable action would be taken against those who violate the order.