BJP MLA raises demand for population control bill

Amid the ongoing difference of opinion between the JD(U) and the BJP on bringing legislation for population control, a calling attention motion was moved by BJP MLA Vijay Kumar Khemka in the Bihar Assembly on Wednesday, seeking the state government response on the need for implementing the two-child norm across all castes and communities as a measure to check population and environment conservation

Amid the ongoing difference of opinion between the JD(U) and the BJP on bringing legislation for population control, a calling attention motion was moved by BJP MLA Vijay Kumar Khemka in the Bihar Assembly on Wednesday, seeking the state government response on the need for implementing the two-child norm across all castes and communities as a measure to check population and environment conservation.

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Other party MLAs also said there is a need for checking population due to the pressure building on agricultural land, water and environment in the state and across the country.

Khemka, in the motion, said a policy for checking the population would be essential for the next 50 years.

The motion drew the attention of the government to the scarcity of natural resources due to population explosion and stressed the need for implementing the recommendations of the Karunakaran committee report, which proposed measures like disqualifying those with more than two children from contesting elections.

However, the government sought time to give a reply to the call attention motion.

Talking to reporters outside the Bihar Assembly, Khemka said, “We request the government to give serious consideration to a population control law. It is as important as having a law to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol.” Asked whether it was a strategy by the BJP, which now enjoys the upper hand in the NDA in Bihar, to nettle Nitish Kumar, Khemka replied, “It is not about the party. It is about the whole society.”

Incidentally, the BJP’s latest bid to put a thrust on framing a policy for population control is at variance with its junior constituent JD(U), which has asserted that education of women and wide awareness could be the panacea to check population. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had recently disapproved the draft of the population control bill in Uttar Pradesh and other BJP-ruled states, stating that it is not possible to check population with a law.

Kumar opined that raising public awareness and boosting women’s education could achieve the target better, as it has already worked in Bihar in the past.

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