Women’s Reservation Bill: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday demanded passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the winter session of Parliament. BJD’s Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra raised the issue at an all-party meeting convened by the government a day before the start of the session and said that empowerment of women is essential for the overall development of the country.
“On behalf of my party BJD, I demanded that the Women’s Reservation Bill be passed in the winter session,” Patra told reporters after the meeting. The MP said BJD leader and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the party are committed to women empowerment. A bill to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures for women could not be passed by the 15th Lok Sabha.
Earlier last year, TMC parliamentary party leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien had also raised the demand for the Women’s Reservation Bill and criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had promised the said bill in its 2014 election manifesto.
The Women’s Reservation Bill was first introduced in Parliament on September 12, 1996 by HD Deve Gowda’s United Front government. According to this bill, the seats will be reserved on the basis of rotation. The seats shall be determined by lottery in such a way that a seat shall be reserved only once in every three consecutive general elections.
After it was reintroduced, the bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 9 March 2010, but it was still pending in the Lok Sabha.
(With inputs from PTI)
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