The Women’s Reservation Bill has been cleared by the Union Cabinet in a key meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Parliament House Annexe on Monday, according sources. However, the government is yet to confirm the development.
Also known as the Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2008, the legislation would reserve 33 per cent of all seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the meeting of Union Cabinet after the conclusion of the first day of the special Parliament session. The agenda of the meeting was not revealed by the government.
The Union Cabinet meeting was held amid buzz over a surprise bill after PM Modi said “historic decisions” would be taken during the special session of the Parliament.
“This session of the Parliament is short but going by the time, it is huge. This is a session of historic decisions,” PM Modi told reporters earlier today.
Congress leader KC Venugopal said that the Women’s Reservation Bill was a brainchild of his party and that they will support the bill if tabled in the Parliament.
“We are totally for women reservation, if they (the government) have any sincerity they should pass women reservation bill in this session. our LoP has told this in Rajya sabha too,” Venugopal said.
NCP leader Supriya Sule also threw her weight behind the Congress party’s demand, saying the first woman prime minister and president were from the Congress, and the legislation was also brought by it. “But the bill could not be passed due to lack of numbers,” she said.