Congress wants women's reservation bill to be implemented immediately: Alka Lamba

Congress leader Alka Lamba on Monday demanded immediate implementation of the women's reservation bill by removing the condition that it would come into effect after the population census and the delimitation of parliamentary and assembly constituencies.

Addressing a press conference in Jaipur, she said a delegation of women had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017 to press for reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, but nothing much happened even after so many years as the Centre put the conditions of census and delimitation in the bill passed by Parliament last week.

"It is our demand that the women's reservation bill that has been passed recently should be implemented from the 2024 elections. Whatever hurdles have been put by the BJP government that first census will happen then delimitation will be done and then reservation be given, we want these conditions to be removed. We want the bill to be implemented immediately," Lamba said.

She said none of the 25 MPs elected from Rajasthan did not demand the bill's immediate implementation.

Lamba alleged that the BJP government at the Centre is against Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The women's reservation should be given based on population ratio, but the Centre wants to deprive OBCs, Dalits and tribals of their rights, she alleged.

"We want the census to be done but connecting census with women's reservation is injustice," she said.

She said that BJP wants to take credit of the women's reservation bill, which is a complete "jumla".

"Who is stopping it from implementing the bill from 2024? It is RSS which is stopping, its ideology and thinking is stopping the bill," Lamba alleged.