Punjab passes resolution for women’s reservation

INDIA RANKS 148TH IN 193 COUNTRIES IN TERMS OF PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN IN PARL, RAHUL WROTE TO SINGH

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab assembly on Friday passed a resolution urging the Centre to enact Women’s Reservation Bill to provide 33% reservation for women in both Parliament and state assemblies.

Moving the resolution on day two of the winter session, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said his government has already reserved 50% seats for women in the urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions.

He said the bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha during the UPA rule when Sonia Gandhi was the Congress president, but lapsed in Lok Sabha due to the “indifferent” attitude of the opposition.

“Once enacted, 181 seats in Lok Sabha will be reserved for women along with 1,370 assembly seats (out of a total of 4,109) in 28 state assemblies in the country. Women make 50% of our country’s population and it is unfair to keep them out of electoral process and decision making,” Amarinder said.

In a letter to Singh, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi earlier pointed out that during his interactions, women had shown remarkable resilience and com- mitment to public service and had besides being effective leaders, had challenged traditional gender roles. “India ranks 148th of 193 countries in terms of the percentage of women in Parliament,” he said, adding that the situation was worse in assemblies and noted that inadequate representation of women in our polity undermines the democracy and perpetuates existing systemic injustices.

The Aam Aadmi Party MLAS welcomed the resolution but took digs at Congress. Referring to the controversy over message sent by state cabinet minister Charanjit Singh Channi to a woman IAS officer, AAP legislator Aman Arora said when “we are talking of women empowerment, we need to respect women first”. Without naming anyone, Arora said a ruling party legislator from Jalandhar too had publicly snubbed a woman municipal commissioner, while Fazilka MLA had humiliated a woman station house officer.

BJP’S Som Parkash said the reservation bill should be clear on quota for women belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCS). “The bill was snatched from the hands of then union minister when presented in the Lok Sabha. There are issues due to which it was opposed. And those issues need to be addressed,” he said. To this, the CM got up and said it was for the Parliament to debate on the bill. “This House is only passing a resolution supporting it,” he said.

KARTARPUR CORRIDOR

Meanwhile, the Punjab assembly Friday unanimously passed a resolution seeking swapping of land with Pakistan to make Kartarpur, the final resting place of Guru Nanak, part of India.

The proposal was not part of the resolution moved by the CM to credit the “efforts made by the Punjab government and the Government of India” in opening the corridor. In the resolution, the CM urged the Centre to ensure its completion before the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in November next year.

The suggestion of land swap came from Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. The party had earlier passed this resolution in its core panel meet held in September at Badal village.