Assam to table 2-child population policy in next assembly session

Guwahati: The BJP-led government in Assam has decided to table population policy, proposing a strict two-child norm, during the next session of the state Assembly in order to ensure its implementation by April 1, 2018.

Assam health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a new Scheme for Compassionate Family Pension in lieu of Compassionate Appointment in Guwahati on Sunday.

“We are going to table the proposed population policy with certain changes in the forthcoming assembly session,” Sarma told reporters.

Sarma had released the draft of new population policy in April this year for public opinion and debate. “Persons with more than two children will not be eligible to apply for government jobs, and for that matter any kind of government service including that of becoming members of the panchayat and civic bodies,” the draft read.

Arguing that Assam is facing a dangerous population explosion and this is one of the several measures proposed in the draft population policy, Sarma said, “Families with more than two children will also not be eligible for various benefits under different government schemes.”

Although, proposed population policy has invited criticism from various quarters, Sarma said that the government has decided to go ahead with it.

The Scheme for Compassionate Family Pension proposes that after the death of an employee, his/her family will continue to get his/her salary with all benefits instead of getting a job on compensatory ground, Sarma said.

“Thereafter, the family of the deceased would get the benefit of the pension as usual,” he added.

Sarma said that his government has decided to set four new universities, besides increasing the number of streams in existing 89 one-stream colleges of the state this year.

He also rejected the controversy over his decision to open up a number of model colleges in the name of Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. He also asserted that it was not the people but few intellectuals who are opposing colleges in the name of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

“If some intellectuals, propagating left ideology in Assam, say that they do not know Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, it is nothing but their intellectual bankruptcy,” said Sarma.

“These left-intellectuals should know that people of Assam have voted the BJP to power. There is no UPA government. We will follow the ideology of our leaders,” Sarma said.

The Assam government’s decision to set up a number of new model colleges named after Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya has triggered protests, with the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and Congress asking why the colleges should not be named after eminent personalities from the state.