BJD seeks passage of women’s quota Bill in Parliament

BHUBANESWAR: The BJD on Sunday reiterated its demand to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill during the monsoon session of Parliament starting from Monday. The bill will reserve 33% of seats in Parliament and state assemblies for women.
At the all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJD’s floor leaders — Prasanna Acharya (Rajya Sabha) and Pinaki Mishra (Lok Sabha) — also demanded that the Odisha Vidhan Parishad Bill be tabled during the session.
“Since these two bills are not in the tentative list of bills which the Centre plans to table during the forthcoming session, we have demanded to list these two bills,” Mishra said.
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the BJD had reached out to as many as 22 political parties to build consensus over passage of the women’s reservation bill. The Trinamool Congress has also demanded passage of the bill in the monsoon session.
Stating that several communities in the state are awaiting Scheduled Tribe (ST) tag, the BJD also demanded that the Centre should immediately table the Constitution (ST) Order (amendment) Bill in the forthcoming session.
The party also decided to raise issues like lifting of paddy by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and releasing subsidy for paddy procurement of around Rs 6,500 crore to the state by the Centre. The party had recently targeted the Centre for not releasing the subsidy amount and non-lifting of paddy from the state.
“We also demanded that the Centre should share some cess amount collected by it from petrol and diesel which will help the states to gain financially and strengthen its fight against Covid-19,” Mishra said.
Earlier, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this regard.
Among others, the BJD has decided to raise issues like more grants to the state under railway sector and expeditious implementation of various railway projects in the state pending for years and to increase tele-density in the state. On important national issues, the party said it will make its stand clear on the floor of the House.