Congress asked to vacate 24 Akbar Road office by March 28: Sources

The Congress party has been ordered to vacate its 48-year-old headquarters at 24 Akbar Road by March 28. Simultaneously, Jairam Ramesh slammed the Modi government's 'U-turn' on the women's reservation bill, calling it a 'diversion'.

Congress asked to vacate Akbar Road office

The Estate Department on Wednesday issued a notice to the Congress party, directing them to vacate their office at 24 Akbar Road by March 28, according to Congress sources.

The Akbar Road bungalow served as the Congress party's headquarters for 48 years. However, after the opposition party opened its new office, Indira Bhavan, at Kotla Marg last year, the Akbar Road premises have yet to be vacated, with party activities still taking place there.

Jairam Ramesh slams govt over women's reservation 'U-turn'

Meanwhile earlier in the day, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh launched a sharp attack on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government over its plan to amend the Nari Shakti Vandan Act, accusing it of making a "U-turn" and using women's reservation as a "Weapons of Mass Diversion", aimed at deflecting attention from pressing national issues such as the PM's foreign policy setbacks and the ongoing LPG and energy crises amid escalating West Asia crisis.

In a post shared on X, Ramesh recalled that the Nari Shakti Vandan Act, 2023--which guarantees one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies--was originally tied to the completion of a fresh census and delimitation exercise. "In September 2023, the new Parliament House was inaugurated by the passage of the Nari Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, which amended the Constitution to provide for one-third reservation of women in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas and also provided for one-third reservation for women in seats reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Both these reservations were to become operational after the delimitation and census exercises would get completed," he wrote.

Congress recalls demand for immediate implementation

Ramesh further pointed out that the Congress had pushed for its immediate implementation ahead of the 2024 general elections, a demand that was rejected by the government at the time. "When the Nari Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 was being debated, the Indian National Congress had demanded its immediate implementation from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections itself. The Modi Govt said this was not possible since both delimitation and the census had to necessarily be completed first. Now the U-turn Ustad has, after 30 months, suddenly changed his mind and wants to implement the reservations WITHOUT completing the delimitation and census operations," he said.

(ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)