By Hemanta Kumar Nath
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday appealed to Muslims of the state to adopt a ‘decent family planning policy’ for population control.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, who completed his first month in the chief minister’s office, has said that population is the root cause of every social menace and if that is controlled, many issues will automatically be resolved.
“We want to work more for the minority Muslim community to reduce population burden. We want to work together with them so that population in the state is controlled. Population is the main root of social menace like poverty, land encroachment and we can reduce this social menace if population is reduced,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
“It has already been rolled out substantially with the two-child norm during the panchayat election, cooperative, municipal election. We are working on it,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The Assam Chief Minister further said that a population control policy is already in place and will be effective soon, and added that the “government wants to work for the minority Muslim community to reduce the population burden”.
Completing 30 days of his government, Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to all stakeholders to come forward and back the government in reducing social menaces.
He further said that the BJP government in Assam will focus to educate Muslim women so that the problem can be addressed effectively.
The Assam chief minister also said that his government will not allow anyone to encroach on Satras, Namghars, holy places, forest lands and the leaders of the community have assured the government that they don’t seek encroachment in these places.
The Assam government has started eviction drives in many parts of the state to recover the Satras, holy places and forest lands from encroachers.
Meanwhile, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has slammed CM Himanta Biswa Sarma over his remarks and alleged that the chief minister has intentionally targeted Muslims.
AIUDF MLA and party’s General Secretary Aminul Islam said that targeting one community is politically motivated and it is in the nature of BJP to target a single community.
“What Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said it clearly shows that he has targeted a single community, he targeted the Muslim immigrants. The Muslim migrants didn’t oppose the population policy adopted by the Assam government. Everyone thinks there should be birth control. But Himanta Biswa Sarma’s statement is a politically motivated statement. The main causes of population rise are illiteracy, poverty, lack of education, lack of social awareness. If the people get proper education, it will be controlled automatically,” Aminul Islam said. ( India Today )
