BELAGAVI: The Assembly on Wednesday passed some important Bills, including the one to bring transparency in public exams for recruitment in government offices. Elaborating on the transparency Bill, Home Minister G Parameshwar said the objective is to bring transparency in government recruitment exams and to provide a level playing field for aspirants.
The government decided to bring the Bill after a scam broke out in the police sub-inspector recruitment exam, where large-scale malpractice was detected, he added.
“The government wants to ensure that the exams are held free and fair so that aspirants who have worked hard must get a fair chance. At the same time, the government also wants to ensure stringent punishment for those involved in malpractice,” he said. The Bill applies to all recruitment exams conducted by government agencies for different posts.
During the discussion on the Bill, BJP MLA Suresh Kumar said the Bill mainly mentions the punishment but does not talk clearly about the prevention of malpractice. The government should add measures to prevent malpractice and to ensure free and fair exams, he added.
On the Karnataka Motor Vehicle Taxation Bill, which was also passed on Wednesday, Transport Minister Ramlinga Reddy said it proposes to impose a 10% tax on electric vehicles priced Rs 20 lakh and above. MLAs of both BJP and Congress took objection, saying the government should not impose any tax on electric vehicles. On the contrary, the government should encourage people to buy electric vehicles by offering tax exemptions, said former minister and BJP leader Ashwath Narayana.
Agreeing with the opposition, the ruling party MLA and former minister RV Deshpande appealed to the government to withdraw the provision imposing the tax on electric vehicles. At this stage, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah called Ramlinga Reddy and had a brief interaction. After this, Reddy announced that the tax on electric vehicles would be withdrawn.
The other Bills passed are The Karnataka High Court (Amendment) Bill and the Karnataka Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill which seek to lessen the burden of pendency of cases on the high court, and the Karnataka Scheduled Castes Sub Allocation -Tribal Sub -Allocation (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources (Amendment) Bill to remove Section 7-D that currently allows intentional deemed expenditure and other laws.