Bihar CM frowns at law route to curb population

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said the state emphasized on educating girls to bring down the rate of reproduction to check population growth and refused to endorse the new population policy in Uttar Pradesh unveiled by its chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said the state emphasized on educating girls to bring down the rate of reproduction to check population growth and refused to endorse the new population policy in Uttar Pradesh unveiled by its chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday.

HT Image

Responding to a question by media persons after the holding Janata Darbar, which resumed after a gap of nearly five years, Kumar said, “Every state is free to do whatever they can to check population growth. Laws alone can’t check population. It was found after a lot of research work that the rate of reproduction comes down effectively if women are educated. Bihar has experimented with this by promoting education among girls and achieved success. If it continues, the state would have a negative growth of population after 2040.”

“There are some exceptions. But overall, girls’ education has yielded good results in the state,” Kumar said.

The CM once again made a pitch for total prohibition in the country while responding to a query over the Delhi high court’s observation that the time has come to go for the uniform civil code, which was provided for in the directive principles of the Constitution. Though the CM refrained from commenting on the court’s observation, he said the government should care for other suggestions made under the directive principles as well. “Uniform civil code pertains to Article 44 of the constitution, while Article 47 contained the provision for total prohibition,” Kumar said.

Around 200 petitioners met the CM during the programme grievances pertaining to different departments. Majority of complaints were related to health and education departments. Dilapidated state of hospitals and non-availability of doctors in rural areas, denial of benefits to students through the government’s credit card scheme, etc were raised during the programme. The CM gave directions to concerned the officers present during the programme to resolve them promptly.

The CM was taken aback when a student hailing from the extremely backward class (EBC) alleged that many students had been left to fend for themselves after the scholarship amount was slashed during their study period.

A woman petitioner alleged her gold pendant was stolen in the middle of Janata Darbar.

Another student claimed he was not being granted credit card loan to pursue course of mass communication and journalism in Gaya, even though his friends in other districts were getting in.

A few other complaints related to the government’s failure to offer job on compassionate grounds and non-payment of rent for buses hired by the district administration during the assembly polls.