Ranchi: A new scheme to control the

burgeoning population in the country will be launched "very

soon", Union Family and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said

here on Tuesday.

"There will be no law, no force, but only through

awareness, efforts will be made to control population," Azad

said at a press conference here.

"Our priority is to stabilise and control population,

and a new scheme will be launched in the next few months. All

types of precautionary measures will be made available to the

people under the new scheme," he added.

Expressing concern over population explosion, with

India alone adding 2.7 crore every year, Azad said the very

purpose of widening roads every year was defeated without

putting a lid on population growth.

"We go on laying four-lane and eight-lane roads, but

the situation (of traffic) remains the same as it (traffic)

were on original roads (because of increase in population),"

he said.

"Each year we are adding one Jharkhand (vis-a-vis

population)," he said in a lighter vein as the state`s

population is about the same (2.7 crore) as the figure of

yearly population increase in the country.

-PTI