Maharashtra women term 50% quota bill historic

MUMBAI: Nearly 18 years after the Maharashtra state legislature first reserved 33% electoral seats in local self-government bodies for women, it made history again by increasing the reservation limit to 50%.
In 2012, many local self-government bodies, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will go to the polls.
The bill will be placed before the upper house for approval.
Many male legislators welcomed the reservation, albeit grudgingly. The Bharatiya Janata Party's Girish Bapat summed it up by saying that henceforth there should be no reservation for women. "The reservations are a disincentive for many elected representatives to give their best. Often, the fear is that the ward will become a woman's ward,'' Bapat said.
The women legislators were happy with the bill, describing it as historic and even saying that the demand for reservations in the assembly and Parliament must be implemented quickly.
They cautioned against promoting women from politically established families.
Pankaja Munde Palave, daughter of member of Parliament Gopinath Munde, said the presence of more women in decision-making would help curb crimes against women.
Meenakshi Patil (Peasants and Workers Party) said women have been part of the administrative machinery, but it was important to provide them training in public governance for better results. Vijay Shivtare (Shiv Sena) said that the mere enactment of laws would not help.