Assam CM Asks Immigrant Muslims To Control Population

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stirred the hornet's nest on Thursday asking the immigrant Muslim community in the state to adopt a “decent family planning” policy to deal with poverty and other social problems, the Hindustan Times reported.

“We want to work with the minority Muslim community to control population,” he said, while speaking at a press conference to mark the completion of 30 days of his government. “The root cause of issues such as poverty, land encroachment etc, lies in uncontrolled population growth. I think we can put an end to a lot of social problems in Assam if the Muslim community adopts decent family planning norms.”

Sarma said that his government will work towards educating the women of the community so that the problem can be tackled effectively. The government cannot allow encroachment of temple and forest lands and members of the community have also assured the government that they do not want encroachment of these lands, he said, according to PTI.