Assam Assembly Passes Bills Giving 50 Percent Reservation To Women In Municipalities

Fifty Percent Reservation For Women In Municipalities: The Assam assembly passed two bills that favour the reservation for women in the state municipal body as well as Guwahati Municipal. The bills were passed with the hope that reservation brings more women to participate in local body elections and hold important positions in governance. As per the bill, 50 percent of seats will now be reserved for women for ten years on a rotational basis.

These bills were passed by the Assam Assembly on December 23 for the civic bodies in the state. One of the bills, Assam Municipal (Third Amendment) Bill, 2021 proposes 50 percent reservation on seats, which is filled by direct election, for women. These seats include those reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes.

Each of these seats will be allocated on a rotation basis to different constituencies every ten years. The Urban Development Minister Ashok Singhal said, "The step to provide reservation for a ward for 10 years will encourage women to participate in the democratic process of election and will enable them to bring sustainability to scheme implement by the urban local bodies."

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Another bill that was passed the same day was The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill of 2021 which will extend the tenure of women reservation to 10 years in the direct election of the councillors.

On December 10, the Assam state cabinet had decided on increasing the tenure of seats reserved for women in local bodies by 10 years. The cabinet meeting, where this decision was taken, was chaired by the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma. In the meeting, it was decided to amend the Assam Municipal Act of 1956 and the Guwahati Municipal Corporation Act of 1969. This decision of the government was announced by the State Minister for Water Resources Pijush Hazarika.

The bills will have an impact on the upcoming urban body and municipal elections scheduled to take place in February and April 2022. On December 5, the Assam CM, while attending a Mahila Morcha, had talked about the reservation of seats for women candidates and said that in wards where women win, that seat will be reserved for ten years.