Governor urged to promulgate Sakrama ordinance

Government pushes for the scheme ahead of BBMP elections

Bangalore in-charge Minister R Ashok met the Governor at Raj Bhavan and submitted the draft of Sakrama ordinance. He also appraised the Governor on the scheme.

Speaking to the media, he said: “The talk with the Governor was fruitful. He said that the ordinance on Sakrama, applicable to the entire State, is being taken into consideration and accordingly a decision will be taken.”

When asked that why the Bill was not presented in front of the recently concluded winter session of the Assembly, the Minister blamed the Opposition for disrupting the house proceedings and not allowing the Government to discuss the matter.

“Following the disruption of the House by the Opposition, it was impossible to discuss the matter in the Assembly. They did not even let the Speaker’s election process to go ahead smoothly,” he said.

In his meeting with the Governor, the Minister tried to convince the former about the need of passing this ordinance for the benefit of the lower strata of people who are living in perennial fear of losing their properties. “There are nearly seven lakh properties in the City alone that need to be regularised. It is for them that this ordinance is needed,” said
Ashok.

In response to questions on whether he was confident of the ordinance being passed by the Governor before the model code of conduct for the BBMP elections come into effect, Ashok said: “We have made a request to the Governor. It is upto him to take a call on the matter.”

Sources in the Government state that while the ordinance was ready much before, there were only small technical changes made to it before being given to the Governor. “Even if it is passed by the Governor on the day of the model code of conduct, it will take only a few minutes for us to publish the ordinance,” said the source.