The Hindu : Front Page : State to go ahead in women empowerment

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Monday, Aug 31, 2009
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State to go ahead in women empowerment

N.J. Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government is understood to have adopted a more liberal approach than the Centre in reserving for women 50 per cent of the seats in local self-government institutions (LSGIs).

While the Union government’s decision on women’s reservation is confined to the panchayats, the amendments proposed by the State government to the Kerala Municipalities Act and the Panchayati Raj Act have gone a step ahead and seek to extend the reservation benefit to the State Development Council, five city Corporations, 53 municipalities, 14 district planning committees and metropolitan councils.

Four amendments have been proposed to the municipalities Act and two to the Panchayati Raj Act to cover almost everything regarding the reservation in different tiers of civic administration and disqualification of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members. The amendments also deal with civic issues like pollution of water bodies and introduction of a new plinth area-based building tax regime.

Official sources told The Hindu that a proposal had been mooted to carve out a Kochi Metropolitan Area based on the framework of the Kochi Urban Agglomeration prepared as part of the City Development Plan under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM). It would comprise the western half of Kochi, satellite cities and towns.

This is expected to lend ‘metro’ status to Kochi. More metropolitan areas may be formed in future in different cities. The councils to be formed to govern the metropolitan areas too would have sufficient women representation.

The new amendments are expected to give a greater say to women in civic administration and regional issues.

The amendments will arm the Acts with provisions to disqualify members who contest the elections using fake certificates showing them as members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Pollution of water bodies has been identified as one as the major reason for the outbreak of contagious diseases. In order to contain the menace, stringent punitive steps, including imprisonment against offenders, are understood to have been included in the amendments.

In addition, it has been envisaged to give paid holiday to the employees of private organisations on polling day

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