NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Wednesday insisted that the United Progressive Alliance Government bring forward the Bill providing one-third reservation for women in Parliament and State Legislatures in the next session of Parliament.

The Left parties demanded that the Government introduce the Bill in its present form and put it to vote instead of seeking a consensus that has remained elusive.

"We are confident that the Bill will come up in the next session of Parliament. The Left parties are not in favour of increasing the number of seats," a senior Left party leader said after a three-hour UPA-Left Coordination meeting that discussed a range of issues based on the exhaustive note submitted by the Left parties to the UPA in June.

Verbal sparring

Left sources said the objection to the Government's approach on the Women's Reservation issue centred around Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's suggestion to increase the number of seats to arrive at a consensus. This led to a brief verbal sparring.

The sources said Congress president Sonia Gandhi said despite her own efforts, consensus on the issue was elusive, and sought a way forward.

The only other Bill that came in for substantive discussion was the one pertaining to rights of forest dwellers and tribals. The Left parties have made some suggestions, including a change in the cut-off date. Both sides agreed to continue with discussions on the issue.

A major part of the meeting was devoted to food security, wheat imports and related issues, with the Left parties telling the Government that they disagreed with the manner in which the wheat imports were handled. The Government promised to review the criteria for issue of Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards, since the Planning Commission and the Rural Development Ministry have different yardsticks.

On the issue of privatisation, the Left parties said outside of Delhi and Mumbai airports modernisation, they would not agree to the route adopted by the Government. On its part, the Government representatives said that Airports Authority of India would be given opportunity in modernisation of 35 non-metro airports. As regards Kolkata and Chennai, it was said that the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu Governments suggested the privatisation/modernisation route. However, the Left leaders pointed out that the subject was strictly in the domain of the Centre and outside the purview of State Governments.

Besides Ms. Gandhi, the UPA was represented by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Mr. Patil, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan and Ahmed Patel.

The Left leaders present at the meeting were Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat, Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, its National Secretary D. Raja and Revolutionary Socialist Party Secretary Abani Roy.

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