Women's Quota Bill to be tabled in RS on May 6
{image-women reservation_06052008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, May 6: The much awaited Women"s Reservation Bill will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha today, following an approval by the Union Cabinet late last evening at an emergency meeting called by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at his residence.
After
its
introduction
in
the
Upper
House,
the
proposed
Bill,
for
which
the
Union
Law
Ministry
has
drafted
two
options,
will
be
referred
to
the
Standing
Committee
to
facilitate
political
parties
to
raise
their
objections.
Railway
Minister
and
the
Rashtriya
Janata
Dal
(RJD)
chief
Lalu
Prasad
Yadav
on
Monday
told
reporters
that
his
party
will
not
oppose
the
introduction
of
the
bill
but
will
raise
the
issue
of
quota
within
quota
for
women
belonging
to
backward
classes,
minorities
and
the
dalits.
The
Janata
Dal
(United),
the
Samajwadi
Party
and
the
Bahujan
Samaj
Party
(BSP)
have
also
expressed
similar
views.
Meanwhile, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechuri said that his party favoured the tabling of the Bill in its original form and urged all political parties to participate in the discussion not to prevent the introduction of the Bill. Between the Law Ministry"s two drafts, the first one is to seek a 33.3 per cent reservation for women within the existing strength of the two Houses of Parliament, and the second calls for increasing the strength of the 545-member Lok Sabha to 900. The Election Commission has also suggested an alternative by making it mandatory for parties to reserve seats for women in each State.
This would involve amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the parties could lose recognition if they failed to provide reservation to women. The other options suggested are rotation and sharing of seats, which were, however, not acceptable to women"s groups. The proposed legislation to reserve 33.3 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women was drafted first by the HD Deve Gowda-led United Front government. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996. Though it has been introduced in Parliament several times since then, the Bill could not be passed because of lack of political consensus.
If the Bill is passed, one-third of the total available seats would be reserved for women in national, state, or local legislatures.
In continuation of the existing provisions already mandating reservations for scheduled caste and scheduled tribes, one-third of such SC and ST candidates must be women.
ANI