New Delhi, November 9
Ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament, women activists pointed out the delay in passage of long-pending Women's Reservation Bill which has once again hit the electoral prospects of women, depriving them of the opportunity of being elected in the upcoming assembly elections in New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Under an alliance "Time for 33 Percent Coalition" women organisations here have urged the President, the Prime Minister, the Members of Parliament and political parties to demonstrate their commitment to women's rights and gender equality.

With the perennial argument that woman candidates have a low winnability, political parties have conveniently denied women tickets and thus denying them a level-playing field during the elections, they noted while calling for action for women's empowerment.

"Women continue to be at a disadvantage as the bill is still to be passed. In all the five states where elections are going to happen, tickets are not being allocated to women as there is no law," said Director of Centre for Social Research Dr Ranjana Kumari.

The bill, which has been pending for the past 17 years, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 9, 2010, and now awaiting approval of the Lower House.

Activists lamented that Indian women's struggle for fair representation in Parliament is perhaps the longest struggle in the history of democratic India and even after 65 years of Independence, women in India still far behind their male counterparts.

Currently, they make up only 11 per cent of elected representatives across the country and thus the challenge of achieving true democratic governance still remains a far cry, they said.

The bill, guaranteeing women's political participation by reserving 33 per cent of the total strength in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, also reserves one third of the total number of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies for women from those groups.

The reservation would be on a rotation formula between different constituencies in the state and union territories and will be terminated 15 years after the commencement of the Act.

New Delhi, November 9
Stepping up its people-contact programme, the Aam Aadmi Party today announced a new campaign 'Jhadu Chalao Beimaan Bhagao'-a road show during which the party's national convenor and chief ministerial candidate Arvind Kejriwal would take rounds of constituencies in Gypsy and seek votes on the anti-corruption card from tomorrow.

On the occasion, the party welcomed disgruntled members of the rival Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party which are faced with infighting and dissidence over ticket distribution issues and said the party is open for anybody who wishes to join.

Even as AAP's executive member Manish Sisodia and candidate of Patpadganj assembly constituency made it clear that the roles of such rebels who join the AAP would be decided by the party. "Our party is open to all and we welcome members from other parties to join," he said referring to yesterday's fall-out in the BJP after senior ticket hopefuls were left empty-handed.

AAP member Prof Yogendra Yadav added that candidates fighting on AAP ticket have to have a clean image while refuting apprehensions and rumours that his party would join hands with either the Congress or BJP. "AAP certainly has an edge and would get anti-establishment vote," he stressed.

Earlier Manish Sisodia took a dig at both the Congress and BJP saying that the main idea behind the road show is to reach out to every citizen of Delhi in all 70 constituencies with solutions for the problems that people have been apparently facing through the ruling-Congress's corrupt Delhi government and the BJP's MCD.

The road-show would start from Chandni Chowk tomorrow 10 am and continue till December 1 during which Arvind Kejriwal and AAP candidates will be covering all the constituencies where they would interact with voters, listen to their woes and offer solutions.

New Delhi, November 9
BJP candidate from the New Delhi Assembly constituency, Vijender Gupta who has been pitted against the Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today visited Dhobi Ghat and Kalibari Marg to interact with the electorate.

Gupta said, "Bhaiya Ram camp is just opposite the Prime Minister's house and yet people are living in miserable conditions. No one has cared to provide even the basic amenities to them."

The residents of this slum cluster expressed their frustration at being left out by Dikshit. Similarly at J-Block Kalibari Marg, people complained of lack of basic amenities. The residents reportedly expressed their resolve to teach Congress a lesson.

Gupta said, “It is shocking that the Chief Minister's constituency has such a dark and dirty underbelly which exposes the failure of the government." At Dhobhi Ghat number five, representatives of all Dhobi Ghat associations were present. They complained that they have got water bills running into lakhs of rupees.

Gupta assured them that once elected, he would get the issue resolved to their satisfaction.

New Delhi, November 9
The Embassy of Sweden and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Limited today jointly inaugurated The Nobel Memorial Wall at the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station of the Delhi Metro network.

The aim of exhibiting this wall is to spread awareness about all the Nobel laureates from India with special focus on Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and will be on display from November 9 to 15.

This year, the Nobel Memorial Week is dedicated to Tagore to mark the centenary of his Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Memorial Wall, therefore, also has a Tagore focus with a bust of India's poet against the original text of his Nobel Prize Nomination, which has been procured by the Embassy from the Swedish Academy.

DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh and the Ambassador of Sweden, Harald Sandberg, unveiled the wall. Similar walls were also put up at various Metro stations as part of the Nobel Memorial Week in 2011 and 2012.

Mangu Singh said, "The contribution of Tagore's work has given India a recognition all over the world. The Nobel Wall is a unique way to honour him. It also gives an opportunity to our youth to know about Tagore."

Sandberg thanked the DMRC for partnering with the embassy in its initiative to commemorate the great minds that India has given to the world.