Guwahati: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said population load is a “disease” for the state, which impacts its performance in various parameters.
This was stated by Sarma in the assembly while responding to Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah who had said Assam’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) was over 16 per cent as per recent survey findings, while the national average is 27.1 per cent.“Most other northeastern states have better percentages than Assam, with a few of them even performing better than the national average,” Narah added.
During the discussion on the state budget, which was presented by finance minister Ajanta Neog in the House on Monday, Sarma said the state’s performance in terms of percentage cannot be compared with Arunachal Pradesh or Meghalaya, which have a much lower population than Assam. “Our population burden affects our performance in terms of percentage. Population vis-à-vis students determine the percentage,” he said, referring to Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah pointing out that Assam’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) was much less than the national average.
Saying that Assam has around 3.60 crore population, the CM said, “The population load in Assam makes all the statistics a mess. We have to attack disease, not the symptoms and our disease is population.”
He claimed that participation of colleges in the national survey on GER at various levels was low in the state previously, which negatively impacted its position. “This time, everyone participated properly in the higher education survey and when the results come out next year, we will be at 23-24 per cent, which is closer to the national average,” he added.
The CM said there is no shortage of colleges in the state anymore and in some newly opened ones, there is a dearth of students. “Hence, we have introduced new schemes in the budget to encourage youth to pursue higher studies. We are aware of the problems of the state and the budget is a reply to these,” he added.
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This was stated by Sarma in the assembly while responding to Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah who had said Assam’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) was over 16 per cent as per recent survey findings, while the national average is 27.1 per cent.“Most other northeastern states have better percentages than Assam, with a few of them even performing better than the national average,” Narah added.
During the discussion on the state budget, which was presented by finance minister Ajanta Neog in the House on Monday, Sarma said the state’s performance in terms of percentage cannot be compared with Arunachal Pradesh or Meghalaya, which have a much lower population than Assam. “Our population burden affects our performance in terms of percentage. Population vis-à-vis students determine the percentage,” he said, referring to Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah pointing out that Assam’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) was much less than the national average.
Saying that Assam has around 3.60 crore population, the CM said, “The population load in Assam makes all the statistics a mess. We have to attack disease, not the symptoms and our disease is population.”
He claimed that participation of colleges in the national survey on GER at various levels was low in the state previously, which negatively impacted its position. “This time, everyone participated properly in the higher education survey and when the results come out next year, we will be at 23-24 per cent, which is closer to the national average,” he added.
The CM said there is no shortage of colleges in the state anymore and in some newly opened ones, there is a dearth of students. “Hence, we have introduced new schemes in the budget to encourage youth to pursue higher studies. We are aware of the problems of the state and the budget is a reply to these,” he added.
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