Govt abolishes two-child norm for local body candidates

Vijayawada: Putting an end to 30-year-old policy, Assembly on Monday passed Andhra Pradesh Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill 2024 relaxing the two-child norm for contesting the local bodies elections. The two-child policy was introduced in united Andhra Pradesh in 1994, barring candidates with more than two children from contesting local body elections.

Minister for municipal Administration P Narayana moved the bill which was passed unanimously without any discussion.

It may be noted that both the Central and state governments introduced population control measures during 1960. As part of it Municipal Laws Amendment bill was passed in 1994. With population growth rate coming down in the past three decades reaching 1.5 per cent from 2.6 per cent in 2001, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu appealing to people to have more children or else AP will face a situation like some countries where there are more older generation, the government abolished the two-child norm to drive home the message.

The Assembly also passed AP Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Bill 2024 which was moved by minister for revenue Anagani Satya Prasad. Other bills passed by the House are AP Medical Practitioners Registration (Amendment) Bill, AP Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, Dr NTR University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Area) Ayurvedic and Homeopathic Medical Practitioners Registration (Amendment) Bill and The AP Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill.