Giriraj Singh calls for mass sterilisation to control population

PATNA: Union minister Giriraj Singh on Sunday said after ‘notebandi’ (demonetisation), there is an urgent need to make laws for ‘nasbandi’ (sterilisation) in the country.The minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises had advocated sterilisation to control population growth at a function in his parliamentary constituency Nawada on Saturday.

Singh said India needs a strong population control Act including measures such as sterilisation as the country was facing a population boom impeding development and social stability.

“India has 17 % of the world population and adds population equal to Australia each year.

The country only has 2.5% of land mass of the globe with only 4.2% of water resources. In this scenario, the population explosion in the country is proving to be a big roadblock for development. We need population control Act to tide over the problem,” he said.

Singh is the second senior BJP leader in Bihar who has advocated sterilisation after demonetisation. Last week, former Union minister and senior BJP leader Sanjay Paswan had said sterilisation will help control population of the country.

Singh told HT that he had been advocating the same for a long time as it was the need of the hour. He, however, insisted that it would be wrong to link his support for sterilisation as directed against any particular community emphasising that population control measures were in practice in many countries.

“There are population control laws in Bangladesh and Malaysia. So, there is nothing wrong if it happens in India,” he said.