Date:26/02/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/02/26/stories/2004022606660400.htm

New Delhi

Plea to highlight population issue

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 25. A Patna-based non-government organisation - Hum Do Hamare Do Foundation - has asked all political parties to make population explosion an important issue in the upcoming general elections. It should also be the top priority of the party that forms the next government at the Centre as it is the main stumbling block in the nation's progress, it said here today.

The organisation has also asked the parties to hold out various incentives to those who strictly adhere to the two-child norm. They should be given rebates in various insurance policies, reservation in jobs for children of the parents following the norm besides government agencies should also announce lucrative schemes for such couples, according to the Foundation's spokesman, Hemant Kumar. The NGO also plans to take out a "padyatra" from Patna to Parliament House in Delhi to build up a movement supporting the two-child norm and also pressurise parties to seriously pursue this objective.