Shun birth control, beget more: Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati: The Terms of Reference (ToR) laid down for the 15th Finance Commission have lent support to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s call for increase in population.

Naidu, while speaking at the inaugural of the two-day Collectors’ conference at his residence in Undavalli here, said that it was essential that population should grow. “I have said this in the past and I am saying it now. With birth control, the number of youths has come down while the population of the aged has increased. The trend has to be reversed,” Naidu said.

In fact, the ToR for the 15th Finance Commission laid down that population of 2011 should be taken as basis for deciding central devolutions. This has come as a shock to many performing states which had taken measures to curtail population growth.

Now that the new Finance Commission would allocate more funds to the most populous states, the states which had followed a code of discipline and ensure birth control would be at a loss.

Referring to the injustice being done to the performing states, Naidu recalled how birth control had done harm to the states by increasing the population of the aged while restricting the number of newborns. “When I advocated the need for increase in population, I had to face criticism from some quarters, but I am positive that birth control should go,” he said.

Naidu also expressed fear that since the performing states had initiated birth control measures, there was now another threat. It is quite possible that 2011 census might be taken as the basis when the exercise of delimitation of the Parliamentary constituencies is taken up. “If this happens, number of MP seats will come down as population would be less,” he said.

“As a result of delimitation in the past, the number of Assembly seats in AP went down in Srikakulam and East Godavari and their number went up in Ranga Reddy due to migration of people to the surrounding areas of Hyderabad. The same will repeat if the 15th Finance Commission takes 2011 census into consideration.

This will lead to lesser representation of states in Parliament. After I raised the issue when AB Vajpayee was the prime minister, 1971 census was taken as basis for the 14th Finance Commission,” he said.

Naidu said though the Centre was unhelpful, Andhra Pradesh registered impressive growth after bifurcation. “When we began our journey, our resources and infrastructure were insufficient and yet we moved on doggedly. Our relationship with the Centre continues to remain tense due to the shabby treatment it meted out to the state,” he said.