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Women's quota bill to be tabled tomorrow

The Women's Reservation bill will be introduced in the Lok Sabha tomorrow, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said.

He made the announcement after an hour-long all-party meeting at the Parliament House this morning.

The discussions at the meeting were on expected lines with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, the Left parties and the Telugu Desam supporting the introduction of the bill and the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal opposing it.

Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav reiterated his demand on the provision of sub-quotas for other backward classes and minorities.

He said his party would oppose the introduction of the bill tomorrow.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh also supported Mulayam's contention.

Vajpayee is understood to have told the meeting that since the majority of the political parties favoured the introduction of the bill in the Lok Sabha, the government would go ahead with the move.

He said the apprehensions expressed by some parties could be resolved during the discussion on the bill and a consensus arrived at.

Sources said even some of the constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance had stressed the need for caution before rushing through the bill. A few of them had stated that the issue of giving adequate representation to women could be left to political parties.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was among those who had attended the meeting.

UNI

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