Sasmit Patra, a Rajya Sabha representative for the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), requested that the women's reservation bill be introduced as soon as possible in the Parliament in his response to the motion of gratitude for President Droupadi Murmu's speech to the legislature.
He probed, "Where is the women's reservation bill because the president stressed in her address that women's empowerment is the cornerstone of her government?" claiming that it is a matter of honour that an Indian tribal woman is now president for the first time.
According to Sasmit, the BJD will continue to lead the charge in favour of the country's ratification of the reservation bill. "Since ten years ago, we have been asking for the bill. When we talk about empowering women, it ought to be done immediately away, he stated.
He requested that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana be reinstated throughout the nation. Sasmit questioned, "If the president had indicated that her government was implementing the scheme because of the changing conditions, why did her administration suspend the program this year?"
Sasmit also demanded housing for an additional 70,000 beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin in Odisha. "If her government is constructing 11,000 homes every day, as the president claimed, why are recipients in Odisha denied the same?" he questioned.
The BJD MP raised the issue of the tribal tribes in Odisha and requested that 169 of them be included in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category. These people have been waiting for this designation for years. Sasmit added that the state still wants to be classified as a unique category.
