Kamal Ghorui
Patna: Jharkhand Congress minister Deepika Pandey Singh said here on Tuesday the central govt has “deliberately” delayed the implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan women’s reservation on 33% of seats in Lok Sabha and state legislatures, and accused it of undermining the constitutional process.Parliament had passed the women’s reservation Bill, 2023, for its conversion into an Act, but the central govt issued its gazette notification only on April 16 this year — on the first day of the three-day special session of Parliament convened for the passage of three Bills related to women’s reservation amendment and delimitation of parliamentary and assembly constituencies. The three Bills were defeated in the Lok Sabha.Singh alleged the central govt had “hatched a conspiracy” to scuttle women’s reservation by introducing an amendment in the Nari Shakti Vandan women’s reservation Bill. She was speaking to reporters here.“The government did not notify the Act for three years and then brought the amendment in it, which is totally unconstitutional,” she said, adding it was for the first time an amendment Bill has been introduced on an Act that was not notified.“When it is time to give women’s reservation on 33% of seats, they are talking about census and delimitation of constituencies by clubbing the three Bills during the special session of Parliament,” Singh said. She added they had been pushing for delimitation in the name of women’s reservation, while keeping the implementation of the quota in abeyance in the name of the Census. She also said the BJP fears the caste census.
