Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, September 20
JDU, a partner in opposition block INDIA, on Wednesday welcomed the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill, but RJD, yet another party in the group has opposed it.
Ms Rabri Devi, former Chief Minister and wife of RJD President Lalu Prasad said the women from OBC and extremely backward castes have been denied reservations. RJD has no member in Lok Sabha.
During the introduction of the Bill in 2010, RJD members had torn down the bill in the Parliament and snatched the bill from the Minister, Narayanaswami who had piloted it.
Nitish Kumar, in a statement, said JDU had been advocating and taking initiatives to ensure women’s empowerment for a long time and have taken many historic steps in Bihar.
He recounted the measures taken in Bihar and said, “We gave 50 per cent reservation to women in Panchayati Raj Institutions in the year 2006. From 2007, we introduced 50 per cent reservation for women in Urban Local Bodies also. We didn’t stop at that. Since 2006, women are being given 50 per cent reservation in primary teacher recruitment and from 2016, provision has been made for 35 per cent reservation for women in all government jobs.”
Nitish claimed the participation of women police personnel in Bihar is the highest in the country. Also 33 per cent seats are reserved for girl students in the institutions under medical, engineering and sports universities, a first in India.
As per the Bill, Census has to be carried out and subsequently the delimitation of the electoral constituencies shall be done. It is only after these steps that the provision of the proposed Bill would be implemented, Nitish said
The Census should have been completed on time. In fact, the Census should have been completed by 2021. However, it is still pending. “We are of the view that caste census should also be carried out along with the census,” he added.
