It is not just the average legislator who is playing truant this ongoing legislature session. On Monday, many Ministers were not in attendance, especially in the Legislative Assembly.
Around 10 Ministers, who had been designated by the Speaker to attend Monday’s session, were absent. The issue came up when Major Irrigation Minister M.B. Patil replied on behalf of the absent Housing Minister M. Krishnappa. The questioner, BJP member C.T. Ravi, took exception to this and objected to Ministers staying away from the session.
When Speaker K.B. Koliwad read out the list of Ministers who were designated to be in the House on Monday, Opposition leader Jagadish Shettar also raised voice against the Ministers’ behaviour. Opposition members described it as showing indifference towards the people of north Karnataka.
Interestingly, the number of MLAs present in the Assembly did not exceed 50 even when the House took up discussion on issues in north Karnataka. In fact, the quorum bell of the Assembly rang for nearly 30 minutes as there weren’t enough MLAs to commence the session. On the opening day of the session, there were less than 20 MLAs in the House of 225 members.
