Madhya Pradesh rejects two-child norm

Madhya Pradesh rejects two-child norm
By Deepak Kumar Rath

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur outrightly rejected the ?discriminatory? two-child condition for contesting civic polls. He said that his government was all set to review the legislation in the current Assembly session. The Chief Minister was in Delhi to attend the meeting of the National Population Policy.

Shri Gaur pointed out that he had received hundreds of complaints from several organisations and leaders, mainly women against the two-child pre-condition for contesting panchayat and local bodies elections. He said the two-child norm to contest the civic elections had in some cases led to marital discord and divorce and also led to social tension in the State.

Supporting the adoption of a common policy at the national level, he suggested that instead of being applied to the poor at the lower level, the two-child provision should be applied to all sections of society and government servants, MPs and MLAs should be included in this provision. ?The Committee'sreport will be placed before the Cabinet for consideration and scrapped if so recommended?, he said.

Describing the grave flood situations in the State Shri Gaur said nine districts covering a total of 1355 villages, affecting 12 lakh people had been affected and a loss of about 4200 cattleheads had been reported. The State Government has estimated the loss at about Rs 500 crore out of which the Centre has provided only Rs 95.33 crore.

Family planning has to be persuasive not coercive.

The Chief Minister said that a total of Rs 2100 crore had been spent on construction of roads in the last one year. He informed as much as 12,050 km roads had been improved and repaired in last one and half year including 1,400 km of national highways, 2,300 km of state highways, 3,650 km of main district roads and 4,700 km of rural roads.

Stating that appreciating the State'sperformance, the Centre has released Rs 637 crore under which 1000 km of roads have been constructed, he said all major tourist destinations were being connected through quality roads for which Rs 1000 crore had been spent.

The State Government'sGokul Gram Yojana is gaining in popularity even outside the State and many States have shown keen interest in the scheme. Shri Gaur said that the Punjab National Bank had decided to fund the development schemes under the Gokul Grams. The MPs and MLAs concerned would select 2,300 Gokul Grams next year. Last year 1,150 Gokul Grams were identified.

Refering to the new power projects of Madhya Pradesh, the Chief Minister said all 80 hydro electricity units of Indira Sagar Hydro Electricity project had started functioning. About 840 MW power had been generated for the first time since July 13, he added.