Minister calls for waging war against population explosion

Bangalore, July 11 (UNI) Karnataka Health Minister R Ashok today gave a call for waging a war to curb the spurt in population, which has become the main hurdle in the overall development of the State.

Speaking at a function organised to celebrate World Population Day here, he said ''we should fight unitedly against the ever increasing population, without attaching communal colour to the issue since it affects each and every one.'' Mr Ashok said that though the country had attained self-sufficiency in foodgrain production, the increasing population was forcing the country to produce more. Due to over use of manure, yield per hectre had come down drastically and cutting down forests to construct new towns had led to pollution.

He said the world population, which was just 259 crore in 1951, had touched 615 crore in 2001 and was estimated to touch 652 crore in 2006. In India, the population had tripled since 1951 from 36 crore to 102 crore in 2001. The population was expected to touch 109 crore this year. In Karnataka, the figure had risen from 1.94 crore in 1951 to 5.27 crore in 2001 and was likely to touch 5.65 crore by the year-end.

UNI MSP GD TS1239