One should not link increase in population with religion and belief and efforts should be made to increase awareness about population control measures, said Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik while inaugurating 'Population stabilisation fortnight' at central hall of Municipal Corporation on Tuesday.
He said that there is an urgent need to stabilise population growth in Uttarakhand as it is a small state with limited resources. Giving example of Scotland in Britain the minister underlined the necessity to stabilise population for development. Making an appeal to the Asha workers to educate masses on population control measures, Kaushik said that they should work in tandem with ANMs in creating village level awareness on population growth. Expressing concern on increasing maternal mortality rate, he said that health of mother and child should be on top priority. The minister directed the officials of health department to undertake year long programmes on population control. Speaking on the occasion, the Rajpur road MlA, Khajan Das emphasised the need of more effective measures by the government in controlling growth of population.
The Mission Director National Health Mission (NHM), Chandresh Kumar said that people of Uttarakhand can understand significance of family planning as the state has a very high literacy rate. Reiterating the commitment of state government on population stabilisation measures, he said that the fortnight long programmes would be undertaken in all districts headquarters of state. Theme of this year’s population stabilisation fortnight is ‘Empowering People Empowering Nations’.
In the morning a Rajpur Road MlA, Khajan Das flagged off a population awareness rally in which large number of students, Asha workers and employees of health department participated.
The event was also attended by Director General (DG) health, Dr D S Rawat, Director NHM Dr R S Aswal, Director Health, Archana Srivastava and others.