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The government of West Bengal has decided to reserve 50 percent of the seats for women in the three-tier panchayat system of the state. The reservation for women in these three categories – general, scheduled castes, and scheduled tribes, is now one-third of the total seats.
To reserve this quota for women, amendments need to be made to the appropriate provisions of the West Bengal Panchayat Act 1973, West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act 2003, West Bengal Panchayat Rules and other rules.
Since the elections are to take place in 2013, the government will have enough time to prepare and make sure that no difficulties will arise when enforcing the new amendments.