Women's bill likely to be passed
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New Delhi: Apparently trying to create fissures in the Opposition which had united on the issue of JPC into the 2G spectrum scam, government is giving signals that it plans to bring the contentious Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha in this session.
Sources in the government said it accords 'high priority' to the passing of the bill that entails 33 per cent reservation to women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The bill has always remained a bugbear for Opposition unity as parties championing the cause of OBCs are against the measure in its present form and want a quota within quota.
"We will try to get all along...we will endeavour to arrive at a consensus that people agree to it and pass when it comes before the House," a senior minister who declined to be identifed said.
Sources in government said that while BJP is supporting the move, it wants that the House should be in order when the bill is brought. There is a realization in the government that with tempers still running high in some of the political dispensations against the bill prvovisions, any unanimity on the issue is unlikely.
The Constitution Amendment bill has already been passed in the Rajya Sabha with the Congress making common cause with the BJP and Left parties amid stiff opposition from JD-U, RJD and Samajwadi Party. A Constitutional Amendment bill cannot be passed with voice vote and the House needs to be in order for voting to take place.
There is a clear understanding in the government that it cannot pass the bill in Lok Sabha by marshalling out agitating members on the lines of what was done in Rajya Sabha during budget session last year when seven members from SP, RJD and LJP and one unattached were suspended and marshalled out from the House after they violently disrupted proceedings.
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