In the wake of Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra’s statement that the government ‘could consider’ lowering the legal drinking age in the Capital from the current 25 years, several civil society groups have been approaching it with recommendations to that effect.
The latest among them is Prince Singhal of the Community Against Drunken Driving (CADD), an NGO that that works in the field of prevention of drunk driving, who met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his office on Monday.
Terming the meeting fruitful, Mr. Singhal said the Chief Minister acknowledged the need to address the issues of education, enforcement and engineering, among others, when it came to a cohesive mechanism of preventing drunk driving on the Capital’s streets.
“Mr. Kejriwal keenly heard the recommendations made by me on the issue of drunk driving which is resulting in death of thousands of innocent victims on Delhi Roads. I handed him a recommendation document which also included some shocking statistics on how 70 per cent of fatal road accidents in the Capital are caused by drunk drivers and on the impact of drunk driving and underage drinking on youth as they are the most vulnerable section affected by this,” Mr. Singhal said.
He added that he had recommended the constitution of a dedicated Commission, headed by the Chief Minister himself, to enforce the 21-year-old ceiling on the consumption of alcohol.
On its part, a senior Delhi government official said that while it was not averse to the idea of lowering the drinking age, this could only be considered during the next financial year when the prevailing excise policy could be ‘suitably amended’.
“Meanwhile, we are glad that a debate on the topic has been initiated so that a structured approach can be taken towards the resolution of the issue as and when the government decides to take a stand on it,” said the official.
70 per cent of fatal road accidents in the Capital are caused by drunk drivers, said NGO
