Centre to reserve 33 % seats for women in J&K Assembly
Bill being brought in upcoming winter session; Women leaders welcome move
Mubashir Alam/ Owais Gul
Srinagar, Nov 30 (KNO): The Government of India is bringing a bill in the upcoming winter session of the Parliament to reserve 33 percent seats for women in the Legislative Assembly of J&K.
The Centre is mulling to come up with “The Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill-2023” to grant reservation for women in the J&K Legislative Assembly.
The bill is likely to come up for introduction, consideration and passage in the winter session of the parliament commencing from December 04, as per tentative list of government business sent to the Lok Sabha secretariat.
The bill is being brought as “The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill-2023, cleared by the Parliament in the special session convened in September this year for granting reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, was not applicable to Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry Union Territories.
Cutting across party lines, the women leaders from National Conference, Peoples Conference and Peoples Democratic Party have hailed the move.
Talking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), National Conference (NC) Women’s wing President, Shamima Firdous welcomed the move.
“It is a welcome move as it would help in dealing with the issues and concerns of womenfolk in a better way,” she said.
Former minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Syed Asiya Naqash said that her party was always in favour of the women reservation.
“The decision to grant 33 percent reservation for women is a welcome move, but such decisions should be taken only by the elected representatives of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.
Peoples Conference (PC) leader Kaneez Fatima said that political reservation is a big step towards empowerment of women in J&K.
“We welcome the move,” she said—(KNO)
