Voting on the women’s reservation bill in the new parliament building today took time due to several reasons, one of them being the absence of electronic voting.
The women’s quota bill was passed by the Lok Sabha today after a long debate between ruling party leaders and the Opposition. It proposes 33 per cent reservation for women in parliament and state assemblies.
The voting took time as the leaders were not yet assigned seats and divisions in the new parliament, which prevented electronic voting from taking place.
There were other complaints of not getting proper audio connections and members upset with the new bills suddenly popping on their screen. This prompted the Speaker to concede, who said there could be such issues initially in the new house, and they will sort them out in no time.
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha held sessions for the first time in the new parliament on Tuesday. The old parliament has been named Samvidhan Sadan (Constitution House).
The Constitution Hall in the new parliament has a digitised copy of the Indian Constitution, along with a touch of modernity as it also houses a Foucault’s pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. The Foucault’s Pendulum hangs from a large skylight from the triangular roof of the Constitution Hall and signifies the idea of India with that of the universe.
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha chambers have digitised voting systems, well-engineered acoustics, and state-of-the-art audio and visual systems to ensure effective legislative proceedings.
Twenty-seven women MPs cutting across party lines spoke during the debate on the women’s reservation bill today, with BJP MPs coming out in support of it and the Opposition parties also backing it while demanding its immediate implementation. At present, there are 82 women MPs in the Lok Sabha, out of the total strength of 543.
