Congress committed to passing women’s quota bill: Sonia

NEW DELHI - Congress president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday said her party was committed to getting the women’s reservation bill passed in the Lok Sabha.

Despite some stiff opposition, we ensured that the bill enabling 33 percent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies was passed by the Rajya Sabha earlier this year. We are committed to its passage in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi said at the meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) here.

She said that a new mines and minerals act was being finalised that will secure for local people and communities a direct stake in projects in their area.

A law was also on the anvil to improve the terms of resettlement and rehabilitation where the projects are unavoidable, she added.

Gandhi said the government was proposing to amend the Land Acquisition Act to ensure that farmers get comprehensive and timely compensation for land that is acquired for large projects.

She said the government was in the process of drafting a new law that will guarantee food security to majority of the country’s population.

It will also create a much more efficient and effective PDS (Public Distribution System). All this will, hopefully, ensure an end to malnutrition which is, as we all know, unacceptably high, she said.

She said the tasks party workers perform were important but it was equally important how they do it.

We should not forget the basic values on which the party has been formed, which we have accepted and for which we have fought, she said.

I hope you will follow restraint, simplicity and dedication in all your deeds, she said.

Gandhi’s remarks come at a time when allegations have surfaced over the role of some party leaders in Maharashtra, including Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, in the Adarsh housing scam in Mumbai where flats meant for Kargil heroes and war widows were given to bureaucrats, relatives of politicians and former army and navy chiefs, among others.

Gandhi said that party workers have to work in a way that weaker sections feel a difference in their lives.