London, June 17: Stating that a proposal put forward by him three years ago to provide reservation for women without a constitutional amendment is still valid, former Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill today regretted that once again there was no decision on higher representation of women in the Indian Parliament and state assemblies. "The deadlock continues and women`s representation suffers. Three years ago I had put to an all-party meeting a proposal which I believe is still valid," Gill told a news agency here.

"Reservation seeks to distort the constitution when the fault lies with the political parties. They do not give enough space to women in the political process. "The simple solution is legal reservation by ordinary amendment of representation of people act to see that at every national and state election all recognised parties shall give 33 per cent of tickets to women candidates. If this was done the percentage of elected women will jump from 8 per cent to 20-25 per cent," he said. Bureau Report