Speaking at a function, Chouhan said, "After the Emergency the leaders abandoned population control completely. One remembers Sanjay Gandhi in these times. The programme that he started is praise-worthy,".
He also admitted that malnutrition was a big problem in Madhya Pradesh.
It appears that efforts made to control malnutrition in the past did not meet desired success, he said.Before malnutrition is contained steps should be taken to stabilize family planning methods in the state, he added.
Sanjay Gandhi had initiated the programme in the 1970s whereby police and government officials were asked to forcibly perform vasectomies on men and also sterilise some women.
The programme was made part of the government's family planning initiative and was supposed to target only men with two children and more but several unmarried men were also reportedly sterilised to meet targets.
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