A cultural extravaganza has been organised on the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha premises on December 12 to mark the golden jubilee of the renaming of the State.
Legislative Assembly Speaker U.T. Khader told presspersons on Friday that Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and former Speakers and chairpersons of the Legislative Council have been invited to take part, besides Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Cabinet Ministers, and legislators. The two-hour cultural event will be performed by about 350 artists from Alvas Nudisiri.
On joint session
Meanwhile, Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti said they had discussed the issue of holding joint legislature session and Governor’s address in Belagavi. “I hope that from next year, the joint session will be held at Belagavi,” he said, adding in future that even the Budget session could be held here.
Both Mr. Khader and Mr. Horatti said they would travel to Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh where legislative sessions are held at two places like Karnataka to study the model and suggest improvements here. Mr. Horatti felt there was a need for legislators’ homes and official quarters as about ₹5 crore was being spent on providing accommodation annually.
On Savarkar portrait
When asked if he had received any petition regarding the portrait of Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar in the Legislative Assembly hall, Mr. Khader said he had not received any. When his attention was drawn towards Ministers making statements on the issue, the Speaker said: “Ministers and legislators should spend time debating and discussing to bring good policy to people. They should attend the House proceedings by coming on time. People should work as per responsibilities.”
He also said: “We should look forward towards development and not what what happened in the past. People are still using the flyover in Bengaluru [named after Savarkar]. We should not create problems.”
