Southern States
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Karnataka
Legislature sittings: State has dubious distinction
A.Jayaram
BANGALORE, DEC. 2. The all-India conference of presiding officers of Parliament and State legislatures, chief ministers, ministers for parliamentary affairs and others held in New Delhi on November 25 suggested a constitution amendment to ensure that Parliament and the State legislatures had a mandatory minimum number of sittings in a year.
In that context, it is an irony that the Karnataka Legislature has had the lowest number of sittings in the past 13 years. The two Houses of the State Legislature have met for just 33 days and 35 days respectively this year and there is no prospect of the figures going up as there is no indication of the two Houses being convened in the remaining days of this month.
In one of its recommendations, the conference said: ``Immediate steps should be taken to ensure a minimum of 110 days of sittings of Parliament and 90 and 50 days of sittings of the legislatures for the big and small States respectively, if necessary, through appropriate constitution amendment.''
No doubt it was a reiteration of the recommendation adopted by a similar conference in Shimla in October 1997 and that of a ``committee of presiding officers of legislative bodies, in their report on procedural uniformity and better management of the time of the House'' held at the Chandigarh conference of presiding officers in June 2001. Both these conferences recommended that there should be a constitutional provision to ensure a certain minimum number of sittings for bigger State legislatures having at least 100 members, and 60 sittings for smaller State legislatures having less than 100 members.
No doubt it can be argued on behalf of the Government that Karnataka is one of the few States with a bicameral legislature, the ministers and the officials have greater legislature work than their counterparts in other States with a unicameral legislature. The other States with a double chamber legislature are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jammu and Kashmir. If one of the DMK governments in Tamil Nadu abolished the Legislative Council of that State, the first Telugu Desam Government headed by N.T.Rama Rao abolished the Council in Andhra Pradesh. There are voices of regret in both those States about the abolition of the second chamber. The Madras Legislative Council had members of the stature of C.Rajagopalachari and Dr. Arcot Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar.
At the recent New Delhi conference, the presiding officers of the two Houses of the State Legislature, Mr. M.V.Venkatappa (Assembly) and Mr. B.L.Shankar (Council) said that the State legislatures should have a mandatory minimum number of sittings in a year. In fact, Mr.Venkatappa attributed the growing indiscipline and indecency displayed by the members in Parliament and the State legislatures to the fact that their sessions were not long enough to enable the members to air the grievances of the people they represent. ``During the recent past, the number of sittings of the legislature have been not more than 40 to 50 days in a year and the Government convened the sessions for just one or two sessions or two or three sessions in a year.''
In the past 30 years, the best record in holding the sessions of the legislature has been that of the first Devaraj Urs Government in the first three years in office (1972-75). The legislature met for over 90 days in one of those years. But the promulgation of the internal Emergency in the country in June 1975 turned the two Houses into a ``kept legislature.''
The S.M.Krishna Ministry, which came to office in October 1999, faced the Legislative Assembly for nine days in 1999, 46 days during 2000, and 33 days this year (during February 26 to March 30, and July 16 to August 3). However in 1999, the J.H.Patel Ministry, which was in office till the October elections, saw through the legislature for 30 days.
The number of days the two Houses of the State Legislature met in a year from 1988 to 1998 was: Assembly 58 days and Council 40 days in 1988, 16 and 21 in 1989 (the State was under President's Rule for most part of that year), 65 and 53 (1990), 45 and 40 (1991), 34 and 36 (1992), 44 and 41 (1993), 36 each (1994), 47 and 46 (1995), 46 and 44 (1996), 52 each in 1997 and 48 and 41 in 1998. It is seen that the best record in the past 13 years in facing the legislature has been that of the Veerendra Patil Ministry in 1990. It has often been suggested that governments shy away from the legislature whenever they face internal dissensions. The Bangarappa and Veerappa Moily's years in the government (1990-92 and 1992-94 respectively) are cited in support and both the chief ministers faced dissensions in the unwieldy and oversized legislature parties they headed. As Chief Minister, Mr. Moily had the mortification of seeing his own Congress MLAs stage dharna in the House on two occasions.
However, Mr. Krishna faces no dissensions in his large flock of Congress MLAs and MLCs. The punishment of expulsion has been meted out to the lone MLC (Mr. Siddaraju) who dared to attack him.
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