BENGALURU: The 13-day budget session of the state legislature that ended on Wednesday was memorable for the wrong reasons.
It will be remembered not for any sparkling debate on the budget, but for the acrimonious squabbling over the death of IAS officer D K Ravi.
Ruling and Opposition party members bickered over the cause of his death, with Opposition legislators staging an all-night dharna inside the Vidhana Soudha demanding a CBI probe into the issue.
Ravi’s parents staged another dharna, and with protests spreading across the state, particularly in the Kolar region, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah buckled and ordered a CBI probe.
Though Siddaramaiah presented his tenth budget of `1.42 lakh crore and announced many populist programmes to appease the Ahinda (Kannada acronym for Minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits) groups, the Houses hardly found time to discuss it as the session was stalled for three days forcing the Speaker to adjourn the Assembly a day in advance for the Ugadi festival.
Legislators from Kolar district also stayed away from the proceedings protesting against Siddaramaiah for failing to make any mention of the Yettinahole project in the state budget.
The Houses finally resumed their business after the chief minister officially announced the CBI probe.
With peace restored somewhat, the government managed to table and pass some important Bills like the Karnataka Ministers Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill-2015, Kannada Language Learning Bill-2015, Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Karnataka Amendment) Bill-2015 and Karnataka Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill 2015.
The legislature also passed Karnataka Tourism Bill, Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Bill-2015, Karnataka Stamp (Second Amendment) Bill-2015, Karnataka Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill-2015 and Karnataka Appropriation (Vote on Account ) Bill-2015.
The legislature also debated the proposed Mekedatu project across the Cauvery, with members blasting Tamil Nadu government for opposing it. In the Assembly, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asserted that the state would go ahead with the project at any cost.
Siddaramaiah also had to placate Kolar and Chikballapur legislators by announcing `1,500 crore for the Yettinahole project and announced his government’s commitment to provide treated sewage water from Bengaluru to tanks in Kolar, Chikballapur
and Bengaluru Rural districts.Siddaramaiah assured the House that he would lead an all party delegation to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring a constitutional amendment making the state language compulsory in primary education and also to counter TN’s opposition to Mekedatu project.
Meanwhile, the sessions were extended by a day to allow more time to debate the Kannada language bill, RTE amendment bill and panchayat raj bill taking the sitting time of the Houses to 60 hours.
Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa said he had plans of extending the session by a week as the proceedings were disrupted over the D K Ravi issue. However, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar said there was no point in extending the session after the budget was approved.
Both the Houses were adjourned sine die on Wednesday.
Netas Return to Attend Extended Session
The Business Advisory Committee’s decision to extend the budget session by a day made several legislators return to Bengaluru to take part in the proceedings. Though the state legislature was scheduled to be adjourned sine die on Tuesday, it was extended by a day to debate at length the Kannada language bill,
RTE amendment bill and panchayat raj bill in the Council. The Chief Whips of both the ruling and opposition parties ensured that the news of extending the session was sent to their legislators through SMS or WhatsApp.
The secretariat office was also assigned the job of calling up legislators personally. Several legislators rushed to Bengaluru from their constituencies.
A minister, who reached Mangaluru by flight on Tuesday night, took a return flight to Bengaluru on Wednesday morning to attend the session.