BHUBANESWAR: The ruling BJD on Thursday urged Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu to take initiative for reservation of 33 per cent seats in Parliament and State Assemblies for women.
BJD MPs met the Vice President in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum in this regard. Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, the memorandum said, “To call women the weaker sex is a libel, it is man’s injustice to women. If by strength is meant moral power, then a woman is immeasurably man’s superior.” It further said gender equality and empowerment of women in the country would be the finest tribute to the Father of the Nation on his 150th birth anniversary.
Drawing the attention of the Vice President to the resolution passed by the State Assembly for 33 per cent reservation for women, the MPs said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Ministers of several States to support the resolution for making constitutional provisions for women.
Stating that most of the national and regional political parties have supported this move whenever this issue has cropped up in the socio-economical arena of the country, the MPs said there is a general implicit political consensus over the issue. “This is the time to take concrete steps to make this happen, the sooner the better,” they added.
The MPs who signed the memorandum are Bhartruhari Mahtab, Tathagat Satpathy, Pratap Kumar Deb, Siddhant Mohapatra, Prasanna Patsani, Arjun Charan Sethi, Prasanna Acharya, Prabhas Kumar Singh and Rita Tarai.