Shillong, Apr 16: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today welcomed the move by the central government to introduce the Women Reservation Bill, a proposed constitutional amendment that would reserve 33 percent of seats in the lower house of Parliament and state legislatures for women.
Stating that this is a long pending demand, Sangma credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking this step.
Only four out of Meghalaya’s 60 MLAs are women and there is currently no female representation in the state cabinet, that is since Sangma removed East Shillong MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh from the council of ministers last year. The CM’s party, the National People Party (NPP), however, can at least lay claim to three of the four female legislators currently in the Assembly.
Sangma said that the representation of women in state Assemblies and Parliament is not what it should be and, therefore, he backed the reservation bill and urged all to support it as well.
The CM also spoke in favour of the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituency boundaries. This process, to redraw and reallocate seats between the states, has not been done since after the 1971 census, and is far more contentious than the Women Reservation Bill, as states with slower population growth rates, such as those in South India, fear that their voice in Parliament will diminish as states in high birth rate North India get more seats in the lower house.
Towing the central government line, Sangma said that delimitation is necessary in order to implement women’s reservation. He held out hope that Meghalaya might get an extra seat in Parliament through this exercise.
