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Will KCR support Sonia demand on women's quota?

Will KCR support Sonia demand on women's quota?

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee on Saturday demanded that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) support Congress president Sonia Gandhi's demand for passing of Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha.

TPCC Mahila Congress president Nerella Sharada and ex-MLA Marri Sashidhar Reddy and other senior leaders said the Congress party had always favoured empowerment of women.

Unlike other parties, whose vision never crossed the peripheries of socio-economic upliftment, the Congress party ensured political empowerment of women.

They pointed out that the then UPA Government passed the Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010. But it got stuck in the Lok Sabha due one reason or the other.

"Congress party had total commitment, but lacked adequate numbers in Lok Sabha to pass the Bill during the previous UPA regime. Since BJP government did nothing to pass the Bill during the last three years, Sonia Gandhi has now written a letter to Prime Minister Narender Modi asking him to take advantage of BJP's strength in Lok Sabha to pass the Bill," they said.

The TPCC chief informed that out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, only 66 are women. This is a mere 12% representation for women who constitute about 48.5% of total population in our country.

The global average for Women in Parliament stands at 22.4% and with mere 12% India is at the 103rd place among 140 countries.  

Within Asia, India is at the 13th position out of 18 countries. The situation is quite bad in State Assemblies where only 9% of 4,120 MLAs are women. These numbers could be changed only by providing 33% reservation to Women in Parliament and Assemblies, the PCC leaders said.

"Telangana is the only major State in the country with no women representation in the State Cabinet. By not including any women in his cabinet, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has sent a wrong message that women are not capable of handling big responsibilities.

In the previous Congress regime, we had five women ministers from Telangana alone and all of them efficiently handled major portfolios like Home and Major Industries.

TRS Govt is apparently against the empowerment of women and therefore, KCR did not give adequate representation to women in his government," the TPCC leaders said.

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