Naveen Patnaik urges PM to take steps to pass Women's Reservation Bill

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday urged the Prime Minister to initiate steps to pass the Women's Reservation Bill that would ensure a third of seats in Parliament and state assemblies for women.

In a letter to Narendra Modi, Patnaik assured his full support to any effort on that direction. The CM’s letter follows the state assembly’s unanimous support, a fortnight ago, to a resolution seeking 33% reservation to women in Parliament and assemblies.

“Empowerment of women is the empowerment of the nation. No household, no society, no state, no country has ever moved forward without empowering its women,” Patnaik said in the letter, in which he also quoted Mahatma Gandhi.


Mahatma Gandhi always spoke of gender equality and empowerment of women, he said. "Taking a historic decision to empower women in our country would be the finest tribute to the Father of the Nation on his 150th Birth Anniversary," suggested Patnaik.

Gender equality was enshrined in the Constitution and the country would move forward with much greater momentum only if the other half of our population, our mothers, sisters and daughters, had a role in the highest decision-making bodies of our states and our country, he said.

He also recalled the decision of his father, former chief minister Biju Patnaik, to reserve one-third of seats in Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies for women in the state in the early 1990s, which he said was a first in the country. This was raised to 50% by Naveen Patnaik in 2011.