The demand for the bill to be introduced and passed was raised at two key meetings today.
New Delhi:
The women’s reservation bill takes center stage again ahead of Parliament’s winter session with several opposition parties, including the JD(U), who once opposed the move and demanded it be introduced and passed during this session .
The bill, which aims to reserve one-third of the seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies, was first introduced in 1996. Subsequently, it was introduced several times.
The bill was passed in Rajya Sabha in 2010 but lapsed after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014.
Any bill pending in Lok Sabha expires with the dissolution of the House. Accounts pending in Rajya Sabha are placed in the “live register” and remain pending.
The demand for the introduction and approval of the bill was raised at two key meetings on Tuesday: an all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of the winter session and Lok Sabha’s Business Advisory Committee (BAC), chaired by speaker Om Birla.
BJD leader Sasmit Patra raised the demand at the all-party meeting chaired by Defense Minister and Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Rajnath Singh. Several other political parties, including the TMC, Congress, NCP and TRS supported the demand.
The demand was also made at the BAC meeting by TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
The DMK, SAD and the JD(U) supported them and demanded an all-party meeting to build consensus on the issue.
“The demand has been raised by various parties at the Lok Sabha BAC meeting and we have even suggested to the government to convene a meeting of all parties to build consensus on the issue,” Bandyopadhyay told PTI.
Following him, SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal said it was high time the bill was passed and women got their right.
JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh, whose party had vehemently opposed the bill in the past and demanded reservation for OBC and SC women within this one-third quota, said: “It is time to empower women and the government must introduce this bill and we will support it.” On a few occasions, some parties and MPs in parliament have raised the demand for the women’s reservation law to be passed, but so many parties jointly raise the issue after several years.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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