Question mark hangs over Question Hour

Business advisory panel will take decision
CM B S Yediyurappa arrives for a cabinet meeting at Vidhana Soudha. (Photo | Nagaraja Gadekal, EPS)
CM B S Yediyurappa arrives for a cabinet meeting at Vidhana Soudha. (Photo | Nagaraja Gadekal, EPS)

BENGALURU: Will Karnataka Assembly take a cue from Parliament and drop Question Hour during its session between September 21 and 30? The cabinet on Thursday decided to leave it to the Business Advisory Committee on the first day of the session.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said that for now, regular procedures of submitting questions are being allowed. At a time the opposition has been criticising the government for attempting to introduce too many bills leaving no time for debates, the minister said that some 30 bills, including 18-20 ordinance replacement bills, will have to be presented in the upcoming assembly session.

“We are compelled to introduce the ordinance replacement bills. There are some 30 bills in all and we will discuss what can be introduced and what can wait in the BAC,” he said. The agenda and calendar for the session will be issued before this weekend.

Apart from extending the term of the Agriculture Price Commission for 2020- 23, the cabinet approved a Rs 600 crore (Rs 180 crore Statefunded and Rs 420 crore from World Bank) project ‘Rejuvenating of Watersheds for Agriculture Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD)’ with the help of the World Bank.

The project will be implemented over 10 lakh hectares in low groundwater level taluks in 20 districts over the next six years. The cabinet gave post-facto approval for a 2019 directive to open LKG and UKG in 276 government primary schools. A sum of Rs 35 crore was approved to adopt digital learning infrastructure for students of first grade, polytechnic and engineering colleges.

Administrative approval has been provided for construction of new medical colleges at Haveri and Yadgir with assistance from the Centre. Approval for bills to replace the recent ordinances amending the APMC act, GST act and several others like the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020 were the other decisions.

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