Panel set up to check population, says PM

Panel set up to check population, says PM
NIRMALA GEORGE

NEW DELHI, MAY 11: India today crossed the billion Rubicon. Choosing the occasion to drive home the elemental message that the country's galloping population had to be reined in, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today called for a "national movement" involving the entire nation.

Unlike the past where the Government was the sole custodian of all family welfare schemes, the effort now is to rope in civil society, private sector, non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations to join the fight to curb the numbers.

But the Prime Minister could not take his message directly to the Parliamentarians, since both Houses were adjourned repeatedly following disruptions by members.

The country's population going up to one billion was a cause for concern and introspection, the Prime Minister said, emphasising the impact this runaway growth would have on the country's economic, natural and other resources.

"If the present growth rate of our population remains unchecked, India will become the world's most populous country by the middle of this century, with people clamouring for a share of shrinking natural resources", he warned.

Meanwhile, yet another Commission came into existence today.

To be headed by the Prime Minister, the hundred-member strong National Population Commission, will work as a coordinating agency to synergise the efforts of different ministries, government agencies and NGOs involved in reining in the country's fast-galloping population growth.

From film stars Sharmila Tagore, Shabana Azmi and Vinod Khanna, to drama personality, Alyque Padamsee, to a fair sprinkling of business barons representing the old and the new economy, like Ratan Tata and Narayanmurthy, and representation from FICCI and CII, the list has them all.

While K C PAnt, Deputy Chairman of the Planning COmmission, will also double up as the vice chairman of the Population Commission, other members would include ministers Yashwant Sinha, Murli Manohar Joshi, Arun Shourie, N T Shanmugham, Arun Jaitley, Maneka Gandhi, Jagmohan and Sumitra Mahajan. Others would include representatives from all the major political parties, MPs, social workers and demographers.

The Commission, mandated by the National Population Policy adopted by the government in February this year, would review, monitor and give directions for the implementation of the policy. Its primary objective would be to ensure that the policy is translated into action and does not end up as yet another dry document.

Promoting inter-sectoral coordination in planning across government agencies, involving private sector, panchayati raj institutions and civil societies, and facilitating a vigorous people's movement in changing the demographic profile of the country, would all be part of the Commission's duties.

There are apprehensions that the National Population Commission will go the way of the numerous commissions of the past, produce a report which would be conveniently ignored by policy makers. But Pant was vehement that this would not be the case. "We will be a lean and fit commission", he announced.