UPA, Left agree on bringing women's Bill, differ on Pension Bill

New Delhi, Nov 13 (UNI) The UPA-Left Coordination Committee today gave its seal of approval for introducing the Women's Reservation Bill and a Bill conferring forest rights on tribals in the winter session of Parliament but deferred any decision on the Pension Bill and an altered Special Economic Zone policy.

The meeting held at the 7 Race Course Road residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the Pension Bill issue for nearly two hours without arriving at any decision, sources said.

The two sides decided to refer the SEZ issue for further discussions between the Group of Ministers and the Left parties, the sources said.

The nearly three-hour meeting was also attended by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Finance Minister P Chidambaram besides CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat.

Mr Karat had demanded changes in the SEZ policy in favour of the people, specially farmers, who face displacement from the land acquired by industrialists for the purpose.

There was, however, much meeting point on the Women's Reservation Bill to give 33 per cent reservation to women in state assemblies and Parliament as well as the Tribal Bill.

CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, CPI (M) polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury, Forward Bloc general secretary D Biswas and RSP secretary Abani Roy were among the others who attended the meeting.

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