Population control imperative for Bihar’s development: Sushil Kumar Modi

Modi emphasised on the need for various measures to bring under control the population growth rate in Bihar in order to ensure its economic development and said that an awareness campaign about family planning must be carried out among the people.

Regretting shortage of hospitals and medical colleges,he said that the state government was planning to set up medical colleges in Pawapuri,Betiah,Madhepura and Bihta near the state capital and another college for paramedic courses in Patna.

Modi,however,said immunization of children had increased considerably with 66.61 per cent being immunized against the national ratio of 61 pct. The figure was 18.8 per cent in 2005 in Bihar before NDA came to power,he said.

Delivery of new-borns in hospitals too had increased at Rs 15 lakh in 2010-11 as against 1.12 in 2006-7,Modi said.

The state government has proposed to distribute health cards among about 3.41 crore children under the health guarantee scheme,he said.