By IANS,
New Delhi : The much discussed women’s reservation bill providing for 33 percent quota for women in parliament and state assemblies was tabled in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday to loud protests from the Samajwadi Party that finally led to the house being adjourned.
The Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned immediately after the bill – first introduced in 1996 – was tabled as Samajwadi Party members created an uproar and tore copies of the bill.
The bill was tabled by Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj around 12.15 p.m. when the upper house met again after a short adjournment. There was high drama as Samajwadi Party members tried to snatch copies of the bill from the minister, and Congress MPs tried to protect him by forming a human chain.
The Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) are opposed to the bill and have demanded a ‘quota within quota’ for women belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had also been opposed to the bill, but its leader and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad finally gave his nod Monday evening.
Political sources said the Congress party wanted to table the bill in this session to prevent it from lapsing.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties support the bill.