The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : An all-woman debate in the House

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 04, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

An all-woman debate in the House

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: In a gesture of sorts, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday invited nine women to participate in the debate initiated by Social Welfare Minister P.Geethajeevan during the presentation of her department’s Demand for Grants.

Usually, there is no gender selection in allowing members to speak during a debate.

However, Speaker R. Avudaiappan announced that the departure from the routine was the government’s warm gesture to female members in the House.

Extra time sought for women MLAs

Bader Sayeed, AIADMK MLA, remarked that women in the House should be allotted 33 per cent extra time until the Women’s Reservation Bill is passed allotting 33 per cent seats for them.

When the Chair tried to cut down her speech, Rani Venkatesan, Congress MLA from Sattankulam, placed forth the argument that women should be given more time and managed to get a few extra minutes.

Other speakers in the House included the DMK’s R. Rani and Sankari Narayanan, PMK MLA P. Kamalambal, CPI (M) MLA Leema Rose, CPI MLA Padmavathi, and Selvi Ramajayam (AIADMK).

Welcomes gesture of the Speaker

When her turn came, Gayathri Devi (Congress MLA) said she welcomed the fact that it was an all-women debate, but hoped that women were not given preference only during a social welfare demand.

She told the House that women are quite capable of taking on other portfolios also and would do well when the time came for them to take on the mantle.

CPI(M) MLA Bala Barathy also rose to record her appreciation of the move when Congress party’s Yashoda occupied the seat of the Speaker when Deputy Speaker V.P.Duraiswamy had to step out for a bit.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu