Seven major Bills expected to be passed
The Budget session of the Karnataka legislature will begin here on February 24 with chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, who also holds the finance portfolio, presenting the budget for 2011-12. The session would be of 15 working days, ending on March 17.
Speaker of the assembly, K G Bopaiah, told reporters here today three bills would be introduced during the budget session and four pending bills would be taken up for discussion. The new bills that would be introduced are: ‘The Karnataka Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill 2011’, ‘The National Law School of India (Amendment) Bill 2011’ and ‘The Karnataka ground water (Regulation and control of development and management) Bill’.
The four pending bills that would come up for discussion are ‘The Karnataka Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2007’, ‘The Karnataka Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes (reservation of appointment etc) Amendment Bill, 2001, The Land Acquisition (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2009 and The Karnataka (Regional Laws) Repeal and Amendment Bill, 2009. “I am optimistic the session will be peaceful and smooth,” he said. It may be recalled the last session was cut short over repeated disruptions by the opposition parties, which demanded resignation of the chief minister for his alleged involvement in land scandals. Bopaiah said he would convene a meeting of opposition party leaders, possibly on the morning of February 25 to ensure smooth conduct of the House, enlarging the scope of business advisory committee interactions.
In the last session, which ended abruptly on January 13, the opposition insisted on discussing alleged scams involving the BJP Government through an adjournment motion. While the speaker permitted discussion during the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the joint session of the legislature. As both the government and the opposition stuck to their position, leading to a deadlock, the Speaker had adjourned the House sine die with seven more days left in the session.