RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday remarked that laws alone won't help regulate population, and reminded BJP that it had opposed the family planning policies of the Congress-led Centre in the 1970s. Baghel was on his way to Nagpur when mediapersons sought his reactions to the move by the BJP-led governments in Uttar Pradesh and Assam to enact population control laws.
"Law alone won't help and no legislation should be brought about just for the sake of politics. This problem (population) cannot be solved without education and mass awareness," Baghel said.
Baghel remarked that it was BJP that opposed family planning programmes launched by the then Union government in the 1970s. "The situation today would have been different if BJP had taken a positive view of the initiatives taken at that time," he said. BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, which is scheduled to go for assembly polls early next year, has announced a new population policy for 2021-2030. It offers incentives to those who help in population control, and according to the draft bill, people with more than two children will not be eligible for government jobs and promotions.
