Fear the fact that girls are drinking beer: Parrikar

Panaji : Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said that he had begun to fear the fact that even girls have started drinking beer now.

“I have begun to fear now, because even the girls have started drinking beer… the tolerance limit is being crossed.

“Not all of them. I am not talking about this crowd (referring to the audience),” he said at the first edition of the State Youth Parliament organised by the Legislature Secretariat, Porvorim.

Parrikar, an IIT-Mumbai alumnus, also said the use of drugs in educational institutions is not a new phenomenon.

“When I went to IIT, there was a small group which was into smoking ganja. So it is not today’s phenomenon,” he said, adding that a small section of students were also obsessed with pornography.

He said the government has launched a crackdown on the drug trade in the state but added that he did not believe that the narcotics menace had proliferated in educational institutions.

“There is also a crackdown on the network and this will continue till drugs are out of sight. I have no belief that it will come down to zero. I personally do not believe that there is much proliferation in colleges…

“On August 13 (2017), after that more than 170 people were arrested for drug peddling, I gave directions. As per our law, if there is a small quantity, a person gets bailed out in eight to 15 days or a month. Our courts have also become lenient… but at least the guilty are caught,” the Chief Minister said.

IANS