Winter session of state legislature to be held in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: The winter session of the Karnataka legislature will be held here at ‘Vidhana Soudha’, the state secretariat and not in Belagavi, as is the practice, as most parts of the district have been ravaged by floods, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said here on Tuesday.

He said the Belagavi Deputy Commissioner and the district administration had informed him that they were not in a position to hold the session there this time as the district has been ravaged by floods and people are in distress.

“So we will have to conduct the session at the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru itself, after which it will be held in Belagavi,” Yediyurappa said in Kalaburagi.

It has been a practice hold the winter session of the state legislature at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in the border district of Belagavi.

Belagavi in north Karnataka has been hosting the legislature session once a year since 2006 when the move was initiated by the JD(S)-BJP coalition government, with Kumaraswamy as its Chief Minister.

This was followed by construction of the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, modeled on the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, by the then BJP government as an assertion that Belagavi is an integral part of Karnataka.

Maharashtra claims Belagavi should belong to it.

Belagavi is one among the most affected districts in Karnataka, where as many as 103 taluks of 22 districts were affected by the recent floods.

The BJP government may present a supplementary budget during the winter session that is likely next month.

Soon after proving his government’s majority on the floor of the assembly on July 29, Yediyurappa, who also holds the Finance portfolio, had sought a vote on account to spend for the next three months – from August 1 till October 31.

The Congress had recently said the governments plan not to conduct the winter session in Belagavi was out of fear that they may have to face ire of flood affected people in the district.