BRS extends support to women's reservation bill

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) extended its complete support to the Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Participating in the debate on the bill, BRS floor leader in Lok Sabha Nama Nageshwar Rao demanded the Centre to implement the 33 per cent women's quota immediately, without further delay. He said women's quota should be implemented in the country from the 2024 general elections and if it's not possible, the Centre should at least stipulate a deadline for the implementation.

Stating that women's quota in Parliament and state legislatures has been long-pending, Nama said that the Centre should ensure that women's quota is not delayed under the pretext of Census and delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies.

He said that the bill was introduced earlier by the Union governments led by H.D. Deve Gowda, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, but the Act did not materialise due to various reasons.

Nama said that the BRS government in Telangana always ensured adequate representation for women in local bodies by providing a 50 per cent quota in mandal parishads, zilla parishads, gram panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations. He said the BRS government also implemented reservations for women in appointments to market committees.