Imphal, Oct 14 (IANS) The Manipur government has restricted the number of children to four in a family to be eligible for government jobs or benefits in various schemes.Manipur's Information and Public Relations Minister S. Ranjan on Friday said that the council of ministers in its meeting on Thursday decided that any person or family having more than four children would be excluded from various government schemes besides jobs.Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh presided over the cabinet meeting which took the decision and approved establishing the Manipur State Population Commission.Ranjan said that the state Assembly had earlier adopted a private member resolution to establish the population commission in Manipur. BJP legislator, Khumukcham Joykisan had moved the resolution over the alleged infiltration of outsiders into the state affecting the demographic pattern in the state. Referring to the official statistics, the MLA had told the house that the population growth of 153.3 per cent in Manipur's hill districts from 1971-2001 increased drastically to 250 per cent from 2001-2011. Naga, Kuki and Zomi and other tribals mostly reside in the hill districts. The Assam government had also, more than a year ago, adopted a two-child policy which would be a criteria to get government jobs and to avail benefits from state-sponsored welfare schemes.
--IANS sc/pgh
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