Karnataka House session ends, little work done

A Chaotic winter session of the Karnataka legislature marked by opposition protests and the shadow of the Cauvery water disputes tribunal’s verdict concluded on Wednesday without completion of serious business set out on the agenda.

The worst pandemonium was witnessed on Tuesday when Opposition Congress members of the Legislative Assembly prevented the panel Speaker from taking his seat and took away his microphone. The Congress has been protesting in the House over the past five days demanding election of a Chairman to the Legislative Council, where it has a majority. Congress MLCs were placed under suspension by Speaker-in-charge N Thippanna, a member of the ruling JDS-BJP combine, a week ago, after they demanded an election to choose a new Speaker.

The Congress protests this week came about when the state government was set to table some Bills, including amendments to the Karnataka Revenue Act and the Karnataka State Civil Services (Regulation of Transfer of Teachers) Bill. CM H D Kumaraswamy, reacting to the opposition protests, said the Opposition was trying to stall the Bills to bring amendments to the Karnataka Revenue Act, which intends to facilitate the auction of government land recovered from encroachers in Bangalore.

Kumaraswamy and his deputy BS Yediyurappa submitted a memorandum to the Governor over the Opposition’s behaviour in the legislature. “They are worried about our drive against land encroachers. That is why they are stalling the legislature proceedings,” he said.