Himanta Biswas Sarma asks Muslims to control Population
Himanta Biswas Sarma, the new Assam Chief Minister, has asked the state’s immigrant Muslim population to control its population.
He has appealed to the immigrants to adopt a decent family planning policy.
Himanta Biswas Sarma also expressed his desire to work with the community in eradicating poverty.
He is willing to work with organizations to educate Muslim women on the necessity of population control.
Population control would help reduce encroachment of land and also ease land pressure.
He added that population rise will lead to clashes and it would not be possible for the government to let people settle in temple and forest land.
The Assam government started eviction drives in the last few days
They have cleared 180 bighas of land belonging to a Shiv temple in Sipajhar from illegal immigrants.
This move has been criticized by many Muslim organizations.
Eviction of people from the ghetto in #Hojai of #Assam by local administration amid pandemic is reprehensible.The administrative decision to expel citizens without an alternative facility is inhumane demeanour. Govt must look into this & take appropriate measures.#hojaieviction pic.twitter.com/GkNvozSymr
— Swadakath Shah (@Connect_SwShah) June 9, 2021
Assam has a very small Muslim population. Only 2 % of the total are Assamese while the rest of the Muslim population are Bengali-speaking immigrants from Bangladesh.
The BJP led Government has been stern on the issue of immigration as they had fought the elections on promises to protect the land and culture of Assam.
Sarma also said that no one is the government’s enemy and that the government needs community support to continue with its policies.
He said that the community has to come forward and stop protesting against the government.
The population explosion is taking their living space and they need to reform it, he added.
