From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Sep 21: The deteriorating saga of the COVID pandemic that has played havoc across the country and the world over, has cast its shadow over the Karnataka Legislature session, which commenced its brief monsoon sitting on Monday.

Given the fact that over 60 legislators of both ruling BJP and opposition Congress as well as JD(S) legislators and several ministers testing positive even before the commencement of the session and being forced to undergo treatment and also quarantine themselves, the State Legislature session will be cut short and will end on coming Saturday, September 26 itself.

The State Legislature session, which is being summoned as per the constitutional mandate of meeting within six months since the last sitting, was originally scheduled to end on September 30 and the Opposition parties, including Congress Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D K Shivakumar as well as JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, had demanded that the session must be extended beyond September 30 to discuss several burning issues plaguing the state.

Among the ministers in the chief minister B S Yediyurappa’s Cabinet, deputy chief minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, ministers Basavaraj Bommai, K Gopaliah, Byrathi Basavaraj, Prabhu Chavan, Shashikala Jolle, Shivaram Hebbar are already under quarantine and have abstained themselves.

A meeting of the Business Advisory Committee called by Legislative Assembly speaker Visveshwara Hegde Kageri has decided to cut short the session from earlier scheduled eight days to six days owing to the rising number of COVID-19 cases, particularly among the legislators.

The Opposition parties have also agreed to the decision on cutting short of the duration. Speaking to media persons before the commencement of the session, chief minister B S Yediyurappa said the government has decided to curtail the number of days of the monsoon legislature session as five-six ministers and 60-70 legislators tested positive for COVID-19 and are under quarantine for 14 days.

The session would be curtailed for a couple of days and some important bills would be tabled and approval of the legislature would be sought. It may be recalled that even the parliament too decided to curtail the session owing to the rising number of COVID cases among MPs.

A good number of MLAs from BJP, Congress and JD(S) have abstained from the first day of the session on Monday. Soon after the commencement of the session, both houses of the State Legislature unanimously passed condolence resolutions mourning the deaths of several prominent state and national leaders, including former President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee and BJP Rajya Sabha member Ashok Gasti, who died due to COVID. Members of both houses observed silence as a mark of respect to the deceased leaders.