Women's quota law: PM urges opposition not to give 'political colour'
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged the opposition not to give a political colour to the government's bills for implementation of the women's reservation law and cautioned that they should be mindful that those who had opposed this in the past had suffered badly in elections.
Allaying fears on delimitation, he assured that no injustice will be done to any state - from east to west and north to south.
Intervening in the debate in Lok Sabha on the three bills moved to amend the women's quota law and set up a delimitation commission, Modi said if all sides support the bills, it will not go in favour of politics of any one side but would be in favour of the country.
"Since women's reservation came into discussion, those who opposed this in the past, were not forgiven by the women of the country and they ended up badly in the elections that followed," Modi said.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women's quota law was introduced in Lok Sabha on Thursday after a division of votes.
Two ordinary bills -- the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill to implement the proposed amended women's quota law in Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir -- were also introduced in the House.
In his remarks, Modi said there is no need to give political colour to the issue of women reservation in legislatures.
"Let us all MPs not miss this important opportunity to give reservation to women," the prime minister said.
In India's development journey, MPs have got an opportunity to make women part of decision making, he said.
"I have come to appeal to you that do not see this from a political lens, this is a decision in national interest," Modi said.
Earlier, the Bills were introduced after a fiery 40-minute debate following which the opposition pressed for the division of votes to introduce the Constitutional (131st Amendment) Bill.
The Bill was later introduced with 251 members supporting it and 185 members voting against the introduction.
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Akasa Air, SpiceJet planes come in contact at Delhi airport; suffer damages
New Delhi (PTI): Wings of an Akasa Air and a SpiceJet plane came in contact on the taxiway at the Delhi airport on Thursday afternoon and both aircraft have been grounded due to damages suffered in the incident, according to officials.
The officials said the Akasa Air aircraft was taxiing for take off and the SpiceJet was taxiing towards the parking stand when the incident happened at around 2.15 pm at Terminal 1 of the airport.
Akasa Air's plane was to operate flight QP-1406 from Delhi to Hyderabad while the SpiceJet aircraft had arrived from Leh, they added.
"Akasa Air’s aircraft operating flight QP 1406 from Delhi to Hyderabad had to return to the bay on April 16, 2026. Preliminary information indicates that Akasa’s aircraft was stationary when another airline’s aircraft made contact with it," the airline said in a statement.
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737 MAX 8.
The airline said all passengers and crew were safely disembarked. "In line with established protocols, the relevant authorities have been informed, and the matter is under investigation," it added.
In a statement, SpiceJet said its Boeing 737-700 aircraft was involved in a ground occurrence while taxiing at the Delhi airport, resulting in damage to its right winglet and the left-hand horizontal stabiliser of another aircraft belonging to a different airline.
The SpiceJet aircraft has been grounded at Delhi, it added.
According to the officials, the wings of both aircraft came in contact on the taxiway.
