Population policy not targeted at any community: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has responded to the criticism that his government has formulated the Draft Population Policy 2021-30 keeping Muslims in mind by clarifying that there is “no intention to target any individual, caste or community”.
“The problem is that those who are narrow-minded make statements according to what they think and talk about that only. The motive of the government is clear, that we have to move forward with our policies keeping in mind the welfare of 24 crore people,” Yogi told Times Now in an exclusive interview.
Countering the criticism that his government was adopting politics of polarisation, Yogi said that this was not the first time that a state government was coming up with a population policy.
‘Aim of law is to bring prosperity to UP’
He said the population bill, among other things, aimed to achieve sustainable goals by working towards poverty alleviation, education for all and health sector penetration. “The aim of this law is to bring prosperity to the residents of the state and ensure that resources reach everybody. But some netas who don't want to do anything want to see politics in everything,” he added.
Yogi pointed out that it was the UN that had charted the sustainable goals programme in 2016. “And in UP vidhan mandal this issue was discussed for close to 36 hours. Based on the discussion we have proposed this policy. The bill aims to focus on areas that are facing problems of population control and proposes to spread awareness in such areas,” he said.
The CM hailed BJP’s victory in the recent rural local body elections as a reflection of people’s faith in his government’s works and policies. “And these results are not an aberration. But what these local polls have established is the fact that from panchayat to Parliament, people have entrusted their faith in just one party -- the BJP,” he said.
He denied that candidates in the recent polls were threatened or coerced. “The accusations have come from those parties who ensured open goondaraj during their rule and they are busy playing politics on Twitter,” he said.