BENGALURU: Former Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti objected to the absence of ministers during the drought discussion in the special session and pointed out that Animal Husbandry and Sericulture Minister C Puttarangashetty was allegedly sleeping, while none of the treasury bench members were noting down points raised during the debate.
Pointing to C Puttarangashetty, Horatti said, “Do you come here (the Council) to sleep and not note down anything ?”
He told the Leader of the House, Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah, that there was a system under which important points raised during debates were noted down by ministers and those responsible for taking action.
When Yathindra replied with an excuse that the personal assistants and staff of ministers, along with government officials, would note down the points raised during the debate, Horatti asked, “If they will note down the points and give replies in the House, why do we need ministers?”
When Kannada and Culture Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi said they were noting down points, Horatti demanded to see what he had noted. Horatti said in his 47 years of experience, he had not seen ministers sleeping in the House or attending it at their whims and fancies and questioned how the House could function in this manner.
He recalled MLCs such as Venkataramana used to speak for 3.5 hours, while the ministers concerned would listen, note down points and respond.
When the treasury bench replied that even the Opposition was of that quality earlier, Deputy Chairperson of the Council Umashree intervened and asked the treasury bench to heed the suggestions of the senior member Horatti and note points raised during discussions and update the ministers.
Earlier, Council Chairman Saleem Ahmed took note of the absence of officials and ministers in the House after MLC Bhojegowda pointed out that nine ministers were not present. Saleem asked Yathindra to ensure that the ministers were present in the House.
He also directed Yathindra to suspend officials who were absent and said he would write to the Chief Secretary to place them under suspension if they were not available. “It is their duty to be here until the session gets over,” Saleem said.