High population is Assam’s ‘disease’: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has termed high population in the Northeast state as a ‘disease’.

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma made this statement while speaking at the state’s assembly on Tuesday (February 13).

The Assam chief minister said that the ‘disease’ of high population impacts the state’s performance in various parameters.

“Our population burden affects our performance. Population vis-à-vis students determine the percentage,” Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

He was referring to Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah query that pointed out that gross enrolment ratio (GER) in Assam was much less than the national average.

Narah had said that GER in Assam was 16.9 percent as per recent survey findings, while the national average stands at 27.1 percent.

It may be mentioned here that several other Northeast states have better percentage than Assam, with a few of them even performing better than the national average.

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said: “We have to attack the disease and not the symptoms, and our disease is population.”