The Legislative Assembly on Monday approved the Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill-2024 and the Andhra Pradesh Municipal Acts Amendment Bill-2024, making it eligible to contest local body elections even if they have more than two children. These Bills were introduced in the Legislative Assembly by Civil Supplies Minister Nadendla Manohar on behalf of Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan, and Municipal Minister Ponguru Narayana.
Speaking on the occasion, he said that in the 1960s, the central and state governments had introduced family planning schemes as part of population control, and in order to strongly promote the decisions taken as part of family planning among the people, amendments were made in the law to disqualify those who have more than two children in local body elections. He said that the fertility rate has decreased significantly due to the measures taken for population control in the last three decades.
He explained that it had decreased from 2.6 to 1.5 percent in 2001. At the same time, the elderly population rate was high. He said that amendments to the law had to be made with the intention of increasing the population in view of the changing social and economic conditions.
Along with these, Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (Amendment Bill-2024), Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Area) Ayurvedic, Homeopathy Medical Practitioners Registration (Amendment) Bill-2024, Andhra Pradesh Medical Practitioners Registration (Amendment) Bill-2024 were introduced by Medical and Health Minister Satyakumar Yadav.
Out of the 7 bills introduced in the Legislative Assembly, five were passed. Speaker Ayyannapatrudu announced that the Andhra Pradesh Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Bill-2024 would be postponed on the request of Revenue Minister Angani Satyaprasad. Agriculture Minister Atchannaidu introduced the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill-2024 in the House.
On the occasion of introducing the medical bills, the Minister Satyakumar Yadav said that the National Human Rights Commission has given a comprehensive advice on January 14, 2022 to eliminate discrimination against people affected by leprosy and other factors. It has recommended that 97 laws that discriminate against people affected by leprosy be amended within a specified time frame.
In it, Satyakumar Yadav said that the NHRC has requested that steps be taken to amend the laws within a specified time frame to end discrimination against people affected by leprosy in the state. He said that the AP Medical Professionals Registration Act-1968 recommends that this law be amended to remove the words ‘deaf, mute, leprosy patient’ from the main provisions.