Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma appeals to Muslims to control population growth, triggers row

Assam CM 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”.