Sonia writes PM:Take advantage of majority in LS, pass women’s reservation bill

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking to take advantage of his party's majority in the Lower House and pass the Women's Reservation bill that has been pending since 2010.

Assuring Modi of Congress support to the Bill, Sonia wrote, "I am writing to request you to take advantage of your majority in the Lok Sabha to now get the Women's Reservation Bill passed in the Lower House as well."The Congress Party has always and will continue to support this legislation which will be a significant step forward in the empowerment of women, she said.

You may recall that it was, in fact, the Congress Party and its late leader Shri Rajiv Gandhi who first mooted the provision for reservation for women in panchayats and nagarpalikas in the Constitution Amendment Bills which the Opposition parties thwarted in the Rajya Sabha in 1989 but later were passed by both Houses of Parliament in 1993 becoming the 73rd and 74th Amendments, she wrote. The Rajya Sabha had, in 2010, passed the Women's Reservation bill, which was then sent back to the Lok Sabha. The Women's Reservation Bill or the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, had sought to reserve one-third of all seats in the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies for women.