NK's Post

Resentment against hike in bus fare mounting in Bhopal

Image
NK SINGH Though a Govt. directive has frustrated the earlier efforts of the MPSRTC to increase the city bus fares by as much as 300 per cent, the public resent even the 25 per cent hike. It is "totally unjust, uncalled for and arbitrary", this is the consensus that has emerged from an opinion conducted by "Commoner" among a cross-section of politicians, public men, trade union leaders, and last but not least, the common bus travelling public. However, a section of the people held, that an average passenger would not grudge a slight pinche in his pocket provided the MPSRTC toned up its services. But far from being satisfactory, the MPSRTC-run city bus service in the capital is an endless tale of woe. Hours of long waiting, over-crowding people clinging to window panes frequent breakdowns, age-old fleet of buses, unimaginative routes and the attitude of passengers one can be patient only when he is sure to get into the next bus are some of the ills plaguing the city b...

Population Problem in India

Graph source: English Online

NK SINGH

“We all know what a war fought with nuclear bombs will mean. It would mean the destruction of million of human beings. But the bombs can only destroy the body. Population explosion can do much worse. It can destroy the soul and degrade the dignity of the human being.”

-MC Chagla, speaking at the American National Conference on ‘A new look at the population crisis’.

1.       India ranks 2nd in population after China and seventh in land area. It claims 15 per cent of the world’s population and 2.4 per cent of the world’s land area.

2.      Daily 167,000 children in the world, out of which India’s share is 50,000 -- 821 more mouths to feed every minute.

3.      Fourteen out of every 100 persons is Indian and they are increasing at the rate of about 2.2 per cent annually.

GROWTH OF INDIA’S POULATION
Adjusted to the present area

1891 – 23.67 crore
1901 – 23.63 crore
1911 – 25.21 crore
1921 – 25.14 crore
1931 – 27.90 crore
1941 – 31.67 crore
1951 – 36.11 crore
1961 – 43.92 crore

Excerpts from The Searchlight 9 February 1970

India is set to overtake China as world's most populous country. And we have been ignoring the warning since 1977. NK Singh's article on population problem in India published in The Searchlight, 9 February 1970
The Searchlight 9 February 1970





Comments