MP reserves 50 for women in local bodies

The Madhya Pradesh Assembly, by amending the MP Municipal Corporations Act, MP Municipalities Act, and MP Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj Act on Friday

The Madhya Pradesh Assembly, by amending the MP Municipal Corporations Act, MP Municipalities Act, and MP Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj Act on Friday, has increased the quota for women in urban and other bodies of local governance from 33 per cent to 50 per cent. The Cabinet had cleared the amendments last week, days after the current budget session began on February 19. Friday proved to the last day of the current session as the Assembly was prorogued.

Panchayat and Rural Development Minister, Rustam Singh described the day as historic. He said this would increase women8217;s participation in governance in grassroot level and give them an opportunity to grow. Archana Chitnis, Member of Legislative Assembly, said this step would make women stronger. Women8217;s reservation had come a long way, she said pointing out that the first Lok Sabha 1952-1957 had only 2.8 per cent women.

In another move, the moratorium on no confidence motion against sarpanchs and deputy sarpanchs of gram panchayats, chairmen and deputy chairmen of Janpad and Jilha Panchayats was increased from one year to two-and-a-half year to allow them sufficient time to carry out their duties.

Yet another important amendment was cleared by the Assembly which allowed urban bodies, to hire on contract, experts from management, accounts, information technology, engineering and planning fields. Prior to this, the urban bodies had to rely on state government employees who came on deputation.

Madhya Pradesh had earlier taken steps like introduction of gender-based budgeting and mahila panchayat. The state also did away with the two-child norm as one of the yardsticks for holding panchayat posts. The provision went against reserved category candidates, who due to illiteracy and ignorance, failed to comply with the norm. Moreover, the provision was discriminatory in nature because a similar condition did not apply to candidates contesting Parliament or Assembly elections, the Bill said.