BANGALORE: The Karnataka government may not ban foreign tours of legislators, but may only regulate them. The junkets were put on hold by Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa following a furore over one such jaunt when the state was reeling under a severe drought. But now, the foreign trips will resume with emphasis on study and curbs on the fun quotient.
Thimmappa told Express that a committee set up to recommend fresh guidelines to make the foreign trips more meaningful and focussed has suggested doing away with the present system in which MLAs who are members of many Legislature Committees are entitled to go on tours abroad on an ad hoc basis.
He said that this practice would now be a thing of the past. However, he made it clear that it would not be a good idea to put a blanket ban on the foreign study tours. “Instead, such tours should be made more educative, productive and insightful with emphasis on a specific subject or department so that legislators could benefit from such tours. It has been decided to send them only on ‘subject-specific’ tours on rotation basis.”
These subjects include agriculture, industries, irrigation, education, animal husbandry, horticulture, infrastructure and, science and technology. Thimmappa said that it would be mandatory for the legislators to submit a study report to the legislature on return.
He said that he had constituted the committee after witnessing public outcry against such tours. “Legislators’ visit to foreign countries had stirred controversies as such exercises were portrayed as joy trips spending taxpayers’ money in the guise of study tours,” Thimmappa said.
He said that the two-member committee headed by Assembly Secretary Om Prakash had submitted its recommendations recently. “The committee’s findings would be placed before the three-member Special Legislature Board, headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, which would take a final call,” he said.
The Speaker and the Legislative Council Chairman are the other two members of the Board, he added.
Siddaramaiah had cancelled the tour of a Legislature Committee to Brazil, Argentina and Peru in January this year. The Speaker was forced to constitute a committee to look into the issue as legislators pleaded against banning foreign tours.