Publication of legislature debates and proceedings is an important part of the democratic process. But the Karnataka government has failed to do so since 2010. This is despite the Finance Department releasing more than ₹100 crore to the Government Press, which has been assigned the job of printing legislature proceedings.
Official sources in the State secretariat told The Hindu that the press authorities awarded desktop publishing (DTP) work to contractors who secured bids for the purpose. However, they have failed to ensure that the work is executed over the last six years.
With several lakhs of pages of proceedings remaining unpublished, Secretaries of both the Houses of the legislature took up the matter with the Principal Secretary, Finance, who summoned the Government Press Director and took him to task, sources said.
Reasons
During the meeting, the Director said that reasons, such as shortage of staff, were leading to non-publication of proceedings. But not convinced with this explanation, a decision was taken to withdraw the order issued to the Government Press to bring out publications, sources said. Subsequently, the Karnataka Legislature Secretariat decided to set up its own Legislature Press for publication of proceedings of both the Houses.
An order was issued on Thursday and the Legislature Press will be set up at the Legislators’ Home building. It will function under the administrative control of the Assembly.
Presiding officers of both the Houses of the Legislature have agreed to the decision, official sources in the Secretariat told The Hindu .
In the first phase, a DTP section would be established.
The printing press would be set up after training the DTP employees, the official said. It would provide work for 40 DTP employees of the Legislative Assembly, who didn’t have work for the last two years.
There would be no additional expenditure for the State exchequer, sources said.
“DTP employees were drawing salary for a couple of years without any work,” a senior officer said.
Besides House proceedings, the Legislature Press will publish Bills, reports of various committees, starred and unstarred questions and answers, Who’s Who, a handbook on MLCs and MLAs, and entry passes for journalists and gallery visitors, the order said.
With no space for DTP employees in the Vidhana Soudha, the officer said, a large number of employees had been shifted to the Legislator’s Home.
The State exchequer would save money as it would draw work from its own DTP staff.
Moreover, all proceedings and reports would be published on time, the officer added.
