Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Friday wrote two letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the BJP government at the Centre introduce a Bill providing 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies in the special session that is set to begin from September 18, as well as another Bill guaranteeing 33 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes,
The demands were also raised by the BRS Parliamentary Party (BRSPP), which met under chairmanship of party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
Rao said that the BRS members in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha should raise these demands in the special session, and discussed with the MPs the strategies on how to go about it. “The BRS is committed to women’s welfare and development of BCs. We will always raise our voice across the country on these issues and hold the central government accountable,” Rao told the meeting, according to a news release from the Chief Minister’s Office.
Rao is also learnt to have reassured his MPs not to have any doubts about the party’s future as it was set to succeed in the Assembly and Parliament elections, even if they are held together.
He pointed out that the Telangana Legislature, in its first sitting after the formation of the state, passed a unanimous resolution on June 14, 2014, seeking 33 per cent reservations for OBCs in Parliament and State Legislatures. “I am dismayed to note that the Government of India has not initiated any action on this front so far,” he said in the letter to the Prime Minister. He also pointed out that the BRSPP on Friday passed another unanimous resolution seeking introduction of a Bill to ensure OBC reservations, he added.
On the women’s reservation Bill, a issue which is being pushed hard by BRS MLC K Kavitha, a former Lok Sabha member, Rao in his letter to Modi said that on the same day, June 14, 2014, the Telangana Legislature had another resolution seeking 33 per cent women’s reservations. “The Telangana government,” Rao said, “is already implementing 30 per cent reservation for women in public employment and admissions in educational institutions.”
Informing Modi that the BRSPP also unanimously agreed on Friday that the Centre should introduce the Bill for women’s reservations in the Parliament session starting from September 18. He said “suitable representation in parliament and State Legislatures is required in a democratic polity to reflect hopes and aspirations of the marginalized sections of the society,” which he added as a critical need that should be addressed.
