Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa on Friday banned the use of mobile phones in the Legislative Assembly. He made this announcement while suspending BJP MLA Prabhu Chavan from the Assembly for a day.
He said he was banning the use of mobile phones in the Assembly according to the report of a House committee, which had been set up to look into the episode of three Ministers in the previous BJP government watching a porn clip in the Assembly in February 2012. He said an ethics committee would also be set up according to the committee recommendation.
The seven-member committee, headed by BJP MLA Srishailappa V. Bidarur, submitted its report in 2013 to the then Speaker K.G. Bopaiah. The committee had also mooted the idea of the legislature having its own television channel on the lines of the Lok Sabha TV for covering its proceedings. Mr. Thimmappa, however, did not touch upon this.
