With the Standing Committee on Rural Development approving the Constitution (110th Amendment) Bill, 2009, the stage is set to enhance reservation for women to “not less than one-half” of total number of offices in the Panchayats.
In its report tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, the committee said it agreed with the proposed amendments and recommended consideration of the Bill with certain modifications for better clarity and appropriate reflection of demographic representations.
Committee chairperson Sumitra Mahajan maintained that all experts, NGOs and representatives of State governments unanimously supported the Bill.
Noting that the Bill aimed at enhancing reservation of seats for women to 50 per cent, the committee underscored the difficulty in defining it with mathematical precision and suggested that the effect of the provision should be “not less than one-half.” The Ministry of Law and Justice too proposed changes to the same effect.
The committee feared that leaving the modality of rotation of seats to the States would deny uniformity among States, and suggested necessary amendment to ensure rotation of seats after at least two cycles, as existing in Tamil Nadu and Bihar. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is interacting with the State governments on this issue.
On the reservation of offices of chairpersons in panchayats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in proportion to the total number of such offices in the panchayats, the committee stressed that their population was spread in “rural” as well as “urban” areas and, hence, suggested that it should be linked only to their rural population for an appropriate reflection of demographic representation. The Ministry has agreed to link it to the rural population.
Expressing concern over some panchayats being run by spouses and relatives of elected women representatives (EWRs), the committee recommended that officials allowing relatives to attend instead of the actual office bearer should be proceeded against by the State governments.
