Panaji, Feb 9 : Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said that he had begun to fear the fact that even girls have started drinking beer now.
"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.
