BJP, Cong members express strong objection over delay in start of winter session of Assembly

NT Correspondent

Belagavi (K'taka): The opposition BJP and ruling Congress legislators expressed their strong objection over the delay in the convening of Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Monday, as it met for the winter session at 'Suvarna Vidhana Soudha' here, one hour late than the scheduled time.

Soon after 'Vande Mataram' was sung and preamble of the Constitution read after the House met for the day at around noon, instead of the scheduled time of 11 am, senior MLAs -- Suresh Kumar of BJP and Basavaraj Rayareddy of Congress -- expressed their strong objections to Speaker U T Khader over the delay.

They said the unnecessary delay without any intimation to members waiting, was sending a wrong message to the people of the state and was in violation of rules and procedures.

"The House was called to meet at 11 am, it has been an hour, it's noon now. What message are we sending out to the people? On the first day itself without any reason, one hour delay. I would like to say that you have not sent a right message through this House," Suresh Kumar said.

Rayareddy too expressed his reservations about the delay. "There are rules of procedure and conduct of business in the Assembly regarding what time the session has to be convened and how, you should have read it. There are also references in (M N) Kaul and (S L) Shakdher (Compilation on Practice and rocedure of Parliament) as to how the sessions should start and when. There is a feeling outside the House that when the session happens in Belagavi, it doesn't happen properly," he said.

Stating that such a thing brings a bad name to north Karnataka, Raya reddy referring as to how Lok Sabha is convened on time, urged the Speaker to begin the house proceedings at the time announced.

"Whether someone comes or not, start the proceedings on time, if someone doesn't come on time it is a shame on them...you may have delayed due to various reasons, inform the House about it...'' he said.