Students from 15 colleges across the Kalaburagi division donned the role of student parliamentarians and debated over several burning issues of the region as well as the State at the divisional-level youth parliament competition in Kalaburagi on Friday.
Nityanand donned the role of the Chief Minister and Gurudev Pujari played the Opposition leader. The other participants taking on the roles of Home Minister, Legislatures of the ruling and Opposition parties, discussed issues ranging from farmers suffering due to Fusarium wilt disease to the standing red gram crop, debt-ridden farmers ending their lives, the PSI scam and the age limit relaxation for the post of police constables.
At the beginning, condolence was offered to departed souls – Umesh Katti, Koluru Basavanagowda, Heeraban Modi, Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mr. Niyanand and Mr. Pujari expressed their feelings about the deceased personalities in the condolence message. Speaker Priyanka instructed the members to ask questions one by one, and said the questions should be brief.
During the question hour, the opposition alleged that the ruling government had not fulfilled its promises made to the people of the State in their election manifesto. Opposition leader Gurudev Pujari criticised the government for cancelling the schemes introduced by the previous government. Replying to the question, Nityanand, in the role of CM, said that the Vidyasri scholarship scheme was stopped due to alleged irregularities. It was misutilised by fake beneficiaries, and so the new scholarship SSP has been introduced, he added.
There was also furore during the mock parliament over the issue of compensation given to farmers.
K.S. Vijay, Principal District and Session Judge, inaugurated the programme; and K. Dwarakanath Babu, Director of Karnataka Institute for Law and Parliamentary Reform (KILPAR) was present.
