HYDERABAD: Under pressure for not having inducted a woman into the State Cabinet yet, given that his previous Council of Ministers consisted entirely of men, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday announced two women MLAs would be elevated as ministers in the next Cabinet expansion.
“We still have six vacancies in the Cabinet. We will take two women into the Cabinet,” Rao said in response to Congress MLA P Sabitha Indra Reddy’s contention that the TRS government was not doing enough to give adequate representation to women.
“The TRS has given one seat to a woman in the MLC elections. The TRS came to power for a second time thanks to increased number of votes from women,” Rao said. Only three women — former deputy speaker M Padma Devender Reddy (Medak), Ajmeera Rekha Naik (Khanapur) and Gongidi Sunitha (Alair) — were elected as MLAs from the TRS in the Assembly elections. Speculations of who of the three would make it to the Cabinet began the moment Rao made the announcement.
Rumours are rife that the chief minister may give a berth to Padma Devender Reddy and Ajmeera Rekha as she belongs to the ST community and having her in the Cabinet would mean representation of women as well as scheduled tribe persons.
Women to run food processing units: KCR
On Congress MLA from Maheshwaram P Sabitha Indra Reddy’s request that women-run banks in Rangareddy district not be closed, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the government would study the situation and allow them to continue if the institutions performed well. He added that the government would start food processing units employing Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) women and give interest-free loans of up to `10 lakh to women.
TRS MP and the chief minister’s daughter K Kavitha too frequently faces questions on why there is no woman in the State Cabinet. At a conclave in Hyderabad on Friday, Kavitha said the fight for 33 per cent reservation for women in the legislature as well as ministerial berths in the Cabinet would continue. She, however, added that she personally felt even 33 per cent quota was not enough. “Women form half of the population, then why shouldn’t we be given 50 per cent reservation?”