BELAGAVI: The first day of winter session at Belagavi’s Suvarna Soudha on Monday saw cold response from the legislators, with just 10 per cent of them present when session started. Only 22 MLAs were present at 11am and by the end of the day, only 80 of the 224 MLAs had marked attendance.
It was an embarrassing moment for Speaker KB Koliwad and the political leadership cutting across party lines as empty chairs greeted them, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for 15 minutes before proceedings resumed.
As soon as the quorum bell started ringing at 11am, the Speaker entered the house. Seeing only 22 MLAs, the Speaker saw red as the minimum number (quorum) required to conduct the proceedings was 24 members. Koliwad said that “it is painful to see such conduct” and decided to adjourn the house for sometime.Among those present were Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimappa. Even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Leader of the Opposition Jagdish Shettar, senior cabinet ministers and other prominent leaders of the opposition came later.
The situation was not much different through the day as the peak attendance of the House did not even cross the 80-member mark in the 224-member house.There were just 6 JD(S) members, 15 BJP MLAs and 51 Congress MLAs. The indifferent attitude raised questions of propriety and accountability of the elected legislators as well as the rationale behind the annual ritual of holding the winter session in Belagavi.
The Suvarna Vidhana Soudha built at a cost of over Rs 400cr has been almost reduced to a ghost stately structure as it remains unused for 350 days in a year. The ongoing 10-day session in Belagavi costs Rs26 crore for the tax payers, which works out to Rs2.6 crore per day. About Rs50 crore is being spent on maintenance of the stately structure annually.Some members said that they were late by just a few minutes and it was a rarity to see the Speaker entering the House immediately after the quorum bell rang.