On July 11, UP government announced a new population policy for 2021-2030. (Representational)
The Uttar Pradesh Law Commission has received over 8,000 suggestions from across the country, including southern states and Jammu and Kashmir, over a proposed draft Bill for population control, officials said today.
Suggestions have also come in from eminent persons, including high court judges and lawyers of the Supreme Court, the officials said.
The draft Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021 was put up on the website of the UP Law Commission earlier this month and suggestions were invited from the public over it till July 19.
"We have received over 8,000 suggestions from across the country. Suggestions have also come from many eminent persons, including judges of high courts and lawyers of the Supreme Court," Law Commission Chairman Justice A N Mittal told PTI.
"We are in the process of going through the suggestions. The good suggestions will be incorporated in the draft while critical ones will also be taken into consideration," Justice Mittal, who drafted the proposed Bill, said over the phone.
He expressed the hope of sending a report based on the suggestions for the key proposed law to the government in August.
Law Commission Secretary Sapna Tripathi said the suggestions on the law panel's email id and through post have come not only from Uttar Pradesh but across the country.
"There have been suggestions from states in the southern part of the country as well as the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir," she told PTI.
She said after the analysis of the suggestions is over, the law commission would send its report along with the draft bill to the state government for its perusal.
With its population estimated at over 23 crore, Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state.
However, the proposed law became a flashpoint in the state with opposition Congress and Samajwadi Party questioning its timing as the next assembly elections in UP are due in early 2022. On World Population Day, the Yogi Adityanath government had announced a new population policy for 2021-2030.