Government plans to delink women’s quotas from demarcation exercise

Government sources said they have taken the initiative to engage with different opposition parties, including the Congress. “The government has the right to decide the manner of its agenda,” a senior official said of the demand for a meeting on the law that provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.The outreach comes amid growing signs that the government is planning to amend the Women’s Reservation Act to ensure its early implementation and possibly decouple it from the delimitation exercise. This will follow the decennial census, which is currently in the early stages of implementation.Drawing boundaries won’t be a quick job. Southern states are likely to resist, fearing that allocating Lok Sabha seats among states based on their respective populations would reduce their representation in the lower house.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has written to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju in response to the latter’s letter seeking discussion on ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’. He told Rijiju that he had conveyed to him the view of Congress that the government should convene an all-party meeting to discuss the roadmap for the implementation of the bill. He also expressed hope that such a meeting could be held as soon as possible.