The Hindu : National : Population commission recast

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Friday, May 20, 2005

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National

Population commission recast

Special Correspondent

Prime Minister is Chairman; it will be administered by the Ministry of Health

NEW DELHI: : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today reconstituted the National Commission on Population (NPC). The Prime Minister is its chairman and the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission are the vice-chairmen. Earlier, the Commission was under the Planning Commission. Now it will be administered by the Ministry of Health.

The commission has as members eight Union Ministers and seven Chief Ministers, both from demographically challenged States as well as States where population stabilisation efforts have been successful, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Other members are the presidents of six political, parties — the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the CPI(M), the CPI and the Nationalist Congress Party — and the presidents of the Indian Medical Association and the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society of India.

Medical specialists and prominent citizens who have been nominated to the commission include Leela Visaria, Ashish Bose, Meera Shiva, Manu Kulkarni, Bolin Khangoria, H. Sudarshan, Mohan Rao, Shabana Azmi, Ilina Sen, Viji Srinivasan, Ruth Manorama, T. V. Anthony, A. R. Nanda, and Asghar Ali Engineer.

The commission will review, monitor and direct the implementation of the National Population Policy, with a view to achieving population stabilisation by promoting synergy between demographic, educational, environmental and developmental programmes. It will promote inter-sector coordination in planning and implementation of population policies across Central and State government agencies.

It will also facilitate the development of an active people's movement in support of the national efforts at population stabilisation, with a special focus on demographically weaker States. To ensure its more effective functioning, the Prime Minister has scaled down the size of the Commission from 131 persons to 44 members.

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