New Delhi: In an effort to break the deadlock over the Womens Reservation Bill, the Parliamentary Committee going into the issue has been given a fresh extension till November 21 to submit its report.
The panel, which was due to present its report on August 8,has already been given two extensions as political parties remain adamant on their respective stand vis-a-vis the Bill which seeks to provide 33 per cent quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said "for the Congress, the Womens bill is a small price to pay for the continuance of its government. The sad message for women on the occasion of Dussehra is that as far as the 14th Lok Sabha is concerned, the Bill is back in cold storage".
The Committee, headed by senior Congress MP E M Sudarshana Natchiappan, is unable to reach a consensus with major parties like RJD, Samajwadi Party and JD(U) demanding quota within quota for the OBCs among the women.
Trying to avoid submitting a report with a dissenting note, the Committee mooted the idea of raising the strength of Lok Sabha by one-third from the present 543 to around 700 instead of reserving that many seats for women.
The panel also suggested leaving the contentious OBC sub-quota issue to the states.
The legislation, promised by the UPA in its National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), has become difficult task for the government to accomplish as without a consensus the Constitution cannot be amended for creating additional seats to accommodate women and lift the freeze on increasing the Lok Sabha seats.
The last Lok Sabha has frozen the seats in House till 2026.
In the absence of a national level census, any OBC quota cannot be allotted and it could at best be left to the state legislatures to decide whether some of the constituencies could be reserved, Natchiappan has said.
Any increase in the number of seats would also have to address the issue of whether they would be created through dual membership.
The Committee has visited several states to elicit views of Chief Ministers and leaders of political parties on the bill. It has held talks with leaders in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.
The main opposition BJP has said it would support the Bill in its present form and asked the UPA government to clear it in the coming session of Parliament.
