With more than 60 legislators, including half a dozen Ministers, testing positive for COVID-19 and under quarantine, the monsoon session of the State legislature which was scheduled to end on September 30, will end on September 26.
A meeting of the Business Advisory Committee, called by Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri, decided to cut short the session from the scheduled eight days to six days, owing to the rising number of COVID-19 cases, particularly among legislators. The Opposition too agreed to the decision.
How many Bills?
With the State government proposing to table many Bills, including the controversial amendments related to the land reforms Act and APMC Act, the committee asked Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy, former Minister and Congress member Krishna Byre Gowda, and the Speaker to decide the number of Bills and subjects of the Bills to be tabled in the House.
Speaking to presspersons before the commencement of the session, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa said the session would be curtailed for a couple of days and some important Bills would be tabled and approval of the legislature would be sought. Parliament too had decided to curtail the session owing to the rising number of COVID-19 cases among MPs, the Chief minister pointed out. Sources said that session would be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. till Saturday.
Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan and Ministers Basavaraj Bommai, K Gopalaiah, Byrathi Basavaraj, Prabhu Chavan, Shashikala Jolle, and Shivaram Hebbar are under quarantine. A good number of MLAs of BJP, Congress, and JD (S) abstained from the first day of the session on Monday. However, senior-most member Shamanur Shivashankarappa attended the session.
