Fresh plea in SC on population control

A fresh plea was today filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to ensure strict population control measures by adopting a two-child policy.
The petition, filed by Delhi BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, also sought a direction to the Centre to take steps to make two-child norm a mandatory criteria for contesting Parliament, State Assembly and Local Body elections, forming a political party, becoming political office bearer and applying for jobs in the executive and judiciary and receiving government aid and subsidies.
It claimed that the government has not appropriately formulated and successfully implemented policies to manage countrys human population growth. There was no aggressive sterilisation campaign targeting men and women and India will become worlds most populous country by 2030.

"Population in India is growing rapidly. The growth is so alarming that it has nullified the impact of all development. In 1947, population of India was nearly 33 crore, which has increased more than four times today with 135 crore," it said, adding that the population density of the country is at a humongous 404 persons per square kilometer of area, whereas the global density is at a nominal 51 persons per square kilometer of land area.
Four petitions have recently been filed in the apex court seeking a directive to the Centre to ensure strict population control measures by adopting a two-child policy and reward or punish those who adhere or fail to follow it.

The petitions, filed by advocates Anuj Saxena, Prathvi Raj Chauhan and Priya Sharma, claimed that statistics relating to population growth indicate that by 2022, the population of India is likely to pass the 1.5 billion mark.
Another plea filed by activist Anupam Bajpai through advocate Shiv Kumar Tripathi alleges that the increase in population was imposing an increasing burden on the limited natural resources of the country and causing continuous degradation.
The PILs also said that unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, poor health, pollution and global warming are a few effects of the population explosion that is being experienced in the country.