UP govt for debate on NDA’s women empowerment initiatives
UP minister for finance and parliamentary affairs Suresh Khanna will move the resolution for a five-hour debate in the House, as per the agenda released for the daylong special session
LUCKNOW The UP Legislative Assembly is likely to witness heated exchanges on Thursday as the Yogi Adityanath-led government prepares to move a resolution, seeking a five-hour debate on identifying and removing “obstructions” to the NDA government’s initiatives aimed at “further empowering women” in line with the ‘intent’ of the Constitution.

UP minister for finance and parliamentary affairs Suresh Khanna will move the resolution for a five-hour debate in the House, as per the agenda released for the UP Vidhan Sabha’s daylong special session on Thursday.
“This House proposes that ‘the Constitution of India’ provides for concept of gender equality. The NDA government during its tenure has ensured important participation of women in political, social, economic, education and health sectors. Yet, they have not been able to get an expected position in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution. The women should get the right to decide in political and social sectors,” reads the proposed resolution, roughly translated from Hindi.
“So, the NDA government got the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023 passed to provide them the expected place...Yet obstructions are being caused in the way of further empowering the women,” reads the proposed resolution further while proposing “a five-hour debate on women empowerment to provide expected place to the women after identifying obstructions and a solution to them.”
Speaker Satish Mahana, who presided over the business advisory committee meeting, confirmed that there will be a five-hour discussion. As the House assembles at 11am on Thursday and recitation of Vande Mataram is over, the state government will table six ordinances that have been promulgated after the budget session of the House. Other listed agenda will also be taken up before the House begins the debate on women empowerment issue.
Khanna said: “The state government will move the resolution on women empowerment and a discussion will be held on the issue.”
Major opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, have decided to take part in the discussions though their leaders feigned ignorance about the proposed resolution. “We are not sure what kind of resolution the state government may move in the House. We will take a call only when the resolution is moved,” said leader of opposition Mata Prasad Pandey. He said rules of the House do not allow any discussion about the happenings on the issue in Lok Sabha. Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ said her party has decided to take part in the discussions. She said the state government has not informed the opposition about any resolution.
The BJP has placed the women reservation issue on top of its political agenda and chief minister Yogi Adityanath and other top party leaders have been targeting the opposition for not allowing the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2026 to pass in the Lok Sabha.
ABOUT THE AUTHORUmesh RaghuvanshiUmesh Raghuvanshi is an award-winning journalist with nearly four decades of demonstrated experience in the profession. He is the author of Ayodhya: The Gods Are Liberated. He is skilled in storytelling and newswriting, and writes on politics, governance, legislature, finance, environment, and social issues. He is based in Lucknow, is well-travelled, and has covered several national and international events, as well as all assembly and parliament elections in Uttar Pradesh since 1984. He has been a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and a Metcalf Fellow at the Metcalf Institute of Marine and Environmental Reporting, University of Rhode Island, USA. He is a science graduate from DBS College, Dehradun, and holds an MA in Political Science from DAV (PG) College, Dehradun. He won the KC Kulish International Merit Award for excellence in journalism (2015) and received it in New Delhi in 2017. He also won a competition organised by the United Nations Environment Programme DTIE OzonAction Programme in 2009 that assessed coverage of the interlinkages between ozone and climate change. He was awarded in Beijing, China, in 2010. He started his career with a Dehradun-based English daily in the early 1980s and later worked with The Pioneer too.Read More

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