NK's Post

24 feared dead as bridge falls

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NK SINGH Bhopal: Over two dozen labourers, including women and children, were feared buried alive when a 40-foot span of a bridge under construction on a busy thoroughfare here collapsed on Monday. Special army and fire brigade rescue teams. helped by local volunteers, had rescued about six persons, including the construction contractor. from the debris by late night. Except the contractor, all of them are in a bad shape. The authorities were unable to say anything about the fate of the persons buried under the debris. It is feared that most of them were killed. Removing the debris was proving an uphill task although cranes were pressed into service. A crowd of over 5,000 persons had assembled around the collapsed bridge by late night. March 4, 1985 Indian Express

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





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