Lower drinking age to 21 years, Kejriwal urged

A Delhi social organisation on Monday urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to lower to 21 the legal age for drinking in the national capital and form a regulatory authority or an agency to tackle drunk driving here.

Community Against Drunken Driving (CADD) founder Prince Singhal presented to Kejriwal a document making recommendations to lower the legal age for drinking in the city from 25 to 21 years and on how to tackle the menace of driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to document, annually over 1,500 people are killed on the roads of the national capital.

Besides a structured commission or regulatory body to be headed by the chief minister, the NGO has suggested a separate committee to reduce dependence on police department to enforce the Delhi excise law.

Singhal said the chief minister acknowledged the immediate need to address the four Es -- (Education, Enforcement, Engineering and Environment) -- of road safety to prevent drunken driving and curb underage drinking.

He said he would meet the chief ministers of Haryana and Punjab for lowering the legal drinking age to 21 and the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and the Lt.Governor of Puducherry to raise the drinking age to 21 years from 18 years.