Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday backed the idea of giving reservations to women in Parliament. Speaking in the first Democracy Awards Ceremony in Mumbai, Naidu said Women should be given reservation in Parliament and should also be given ‘funds, functions, and functionaries’.
Speaking about the importance of the women in the Indian Society, Vice President said, ‘We call Mother India, and not ‘Father India’. This is the importance we give. Women are 50% of the total population. They should get a reservation in the Parliament and after which they should be provided with ‘funds, functions, and functionaries’.
Speaking in the event, Naidu lauded Maharashtra government for granting 50% reservation to women in local body elections. Talking about the delay in local body elections in some states, Naidu asserted that the polls should be conducted in every five years.
Rajya Sabha Chairman said that he want jus like national and Assembly polls, local body elections should also be held in every five years without any delay. I am among the supporters who want that local body elections should be held every 5 years without giving the scope and power to the state government to postpone it.
He added, ‘State governments should start preparing for the local body polls before a month when the term of the body is slated to end’.
Rajya Sabha Chairman’s statement about the giving reservation to women comes at a time when the Women Reservation Bill, 2008, that proposed to give 33 percent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha, is pending for almost 10 years now.
The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, (popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill) is a lapsed bill in the Parliament which proposed an amendment in the Constitution to reserve 33% of all seats in Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women.
The 17th Lok Sabha has the highest number of women MPs in the Lower House of the Parliament. The current Lok Sabha has 78 Women MPs, which is the highest since Independence.
(With Inputs from ANI)
ALSO READ:
- BJP Working President JP Nadda on a two-day visit to Haryana from today; discuss poll strategy
- Congress plans to remind masses about PM Rajiv Gandhi’s contribution on his birth anniversary
- Karnataka: Three rebels to approach SC against Speaker’s decision to disqualify them