Women's quota bill to be tabled on Monday
The Constitution (eightyfourth amendment) Bill, 1998, to provide for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies will be introduced in Parliament on July 13, the government announced today.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madanlal Khurana told the media
that it would be the endeavour of the government to get the Bill
passed in this session itself.
He said the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee at the request of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh, by and large supported the Bill except demands by some parties that there should be provision for reservation for OBC women and minorities.
After the meeting, Vajpayee said there was consensus in favour
of the Bill. The Bill as it stands today will be introduced in
the Lok Sabha to get it passed in this very session.
Khurana said it had been decided to consider later the demand
by some parties that reservation for women belonging to OBC and
minorities be included in the Bill. The Bill therefore would not be
delayed, but be introduced in the present form. The Bill was earlier
scheduled to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 3.
He said the Bill was an important step towards empowerment of
women and was one of the commitments made by the BJP and allies in the national agenda for governance.
Khurana said the Bill had been received by his ministry after
due vetting from the law ministry, and necessary notice for its
introduction had already been given to the Lok Sabha secretariat.
A request had been sent to Speaker G M C Balayogi that the Bill should be included in the list of business for Monday, he said.
He said today's meeting was attended by 37 leaders belonging to
35 political parties. Of them, 24 participated in the discussion.
According to him, Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party opposed
the 33 per cent reservation for women, saying that such a high percentage was not given even in advanced countries. He suggested that this should be maximum 15 per cent.
Yadav was of the view that in the panchayats it had been
noticed that husbands of the women panchs often ruled the show by proxy and that illiterate women cannot compete with educated women. He also wanted that reserved constituencies for the purpose should be decided by the political parties instead of the Election Commission.
BSP leader and former UP chief minister Mayawati, however, welcomed
the Bill but suggested that backward classes and minorities should
also be included in it. The same demand was also made by
Subramanian Swamy of the Janata Party.
V K Ramamurty of Tamilnadu Rajiv Congress said 27 per cent
reservation for OBC should be retained in the proposed Bill.
Jayanti Natarajan of the Tamil Maanila Congress, supporting the
Bill, said it would give equality to women.
Sharad Pawar said the Congress fully supported the Bill and
inclusion of OBCs could be taken up at appropriate time. While
Sedapatti Muthiah of the AIADMK, demanded reservation for OBC women, Laloo Prasad Yadav of the RJD was of the view that there
should be no general reservation but only for backward women.
The Telugu Desam Party supported the proposed Bill wholeheartedly
while Janata Dal leader Ram Vilas Paswan described it a revolutionary step in the first democratic country.
The BJP's alliance partners, Trinamul Congress represented by Mamata Banerjee, supported the Bill strongly but the Samata Party's George Fernandes said his party would propose amendments in the Bill to include OBC. But it would not come in the way of the passage
of the Bill.
The CPI-M said it would not accept any dilution from 33 per
cent to 15 per cent reservation and the Bill must be passed in the
present form. The DMK, represented by T R Balu, said they had
already supported it in the standing committee.
The Indian Union Muslim League and the National Conference said OBCs's interest be protected. Social justice shall not be fractured. It was time that OBC and Muslim women be given reservation, G M
Banatwala argued, while Saiffudin Soz pointed out there was no
Muslim women in the Lok Sabha.
The Congress today supported the Women's
Reservation Bill as originally formulated by its leader Rajiv Gandhi
seeking to provide 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha
and state assemblies.
Participating in the all-party meeting convened by the prime
minister on this subject, Congress leaders hoped that the Bill would
have a smooth passage in Parliament.
Briefing the media, party spokesman Ajit Jogi said if necessary, the
party would issue a whip to its members to vote for the Bill. He
said there was no difference of opinion in the party on this Bill.
UNI
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