Mayawati seeks immediate implementation of women's reservation bill

Lucknow: BSP leader Mayawati on Wednesday urged the government to delink the women’s reservation bill from the census and delimitation exercises that would “delay” its implementation for years, and ensure that the quota can come into being “immediately”.

She said certain provisions of the bill have been framed in such a manner that the benefit of the reservation would not reach women for the next 15 or 16 years, or “several elections” later.

The Centre on Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, reviving a bill pending for nearly three decades because of lack of consensus among parties.

"The provisions which need to be mentioned here are that after the passage of the bill a census will be carried out in the country followed by the delimitation for Lok Sabha and state assembly constituencies,” The Bahujan Samaj Party supremo, who has already extended support to the bill, said.

“This means it will not be implemented immediately," she told reporters.