South’s Move To Boost Population Not Good: Ex-RBI Guv Subbarao

Hyderabad: Amid calls from some southern states favouring higher population to address disparities in Central funds, former RBI Governor D Subbarao on Thursday argued that population growth is not the solution. Delivering "3rd BPR Vithal Memorial Lecture-India's Fiscal Federalism-Quo Vadis?" here, Subbarao said the BJP, which had earlier called freebies "revadi culture" is now competing with Aam Aadmi Party in offering schemes in the Delhi Assembly poll campaigns. He, however, said in a poor country where millions struggle for daily life, it is even mandatory for the government to help people. On some states offering free government bus rides to women, the former RBI chief opined there is no evidence that it is the best way to help them.

"I worked in the government for 50 years. When I first joined the service, our biggest priority was population control, family planning and we believed that the population growth was undoing all the development. But I never saw that we will see a day when political leaders will say that we must increase our population," Subbarao said.

"Evidently the subtext of the message is that some States which have done well in population control are losing out on Central transfers. But I don't believe that increasing the population is the solution, because India is one country. We still have a population problem at the aggregate level," he further said.

Expressing concerns about being penalised for achieving better growth and controlling its population, Kerala recently demanded an increase in its share of Central taxes from the current 41 per cent to 50 per cent.