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Congress seeks TRS prop for women’s quota bill
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday demanded that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) support Congress president Sonia Gandhi\'s appeal for passing of Women\'s Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha.
Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday demanded that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) support Congress president Sonia Gandhi's appeal for passing of Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha.
He was speaking, while participating in the Bathukamma celebrations, organised by Mahila Congress at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday. TPCC Mahila Congress president Nerella Sharada, former Minister Marri Sashidhar Reddy and other senior leaders also participated in the celebrations.
Speaking on the occasion, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Congress party has always stood for the empowerment of women. Unlike other parties, whose vision never crossed the peripheries of socio-economic upliftment, the Congress party ensured political empowerment of women.
"It was former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who originally came up with the thought of giving political reservation to women. Rajiv Gandhi brought amendment in the Panchayati Raj Act 1992, granting 33 per cent reservation to women in the Panchayati Raj Institutions and local bodies.
Although the opposition parties opposed the Bill in the Rajya Sabha in 1989, it was later passed in both the Houses of Parliament in 1993 which became 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment. This was a revolutionary step which ensured real empowerment of women at village level," he said.
He said the UPA government, under the guidance and leadership of Sonia Gandhi, also passed the Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010.
The TPCC chief said out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, only 66 are women. This is a mere 12 per cent representation for women who constitute about 48.5 per cent of total population. The global average for Women in Parliament stands at 22.4 per cent and with mere 12 per cent India is at the 103rd place among 140 countries.
Within Asia, India is at the 13th position out of 18 countries. The situation is quite bad in the State State Assemblies where only 9 per cent of 4,120 MLAs are women. These numbers could be changed only by providing 33 per cent reservation to Women in Parliament and Assemblies, he said.
"Telangana is the only major State in the country with no women representation in the State Cabinet. By not including any woman in his Cabinet, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has sent a wrong message that women are not capable of handling big responsibilities. In the previous Congress regime, there were five women ministers from Telangana alone and all of them efficiently handled major portfolios like Home and Major Industries, he added.
