The opposition members gathered in the well of the house and protested against the fact that the presidents and members were appointed to Standing Committees without holding election. Unable to convince the members, President adjourned the meeting.
Earlier as Gayathri Shanthe Gowda began to read out the names of the Presidents and members of various standing committees selected by her, Members Belli Prakash, Krishnamurthy, Venkatesh, Hoovappa, Sandeep, Thimmegowda, Farahath Banu, Ashalatha D Jain and Ravikumar protested and called it ‘murder of democracy’.
When the protest continued, President adjourned the meeting for lunch but as the meeting resumed, Belli Prakash started the discussion on the same issue afresh and drafted a ‘dissent note’ in this regard.

Questioning whether legally the President can appoint members to standing committee without holding elections, Prakash demanded the President to quote the schedule of the constitution which allows it. However President refused to answer him.

DC absent

Deputy Commissioner and ZP Administrative Officer R Narayanaswamy sent a letter to the ZP stating that he cannot attend the meeting as he has to look after the arrangements for the programme to be held on September 19, which will be attended by Chief Minister and other ministers. This made the ZP members angry and the ZP passed a resolution condemning absence of DC. “There are so many employees in DC office who can look after the arrangement part of it. DC should have taken out time to attend the meeting,” said Member Anthony. Members of the ruling party said that state government is neglecting the development of Chikmagalur district and this is obvious by the fact that it has not yet deputed CEO to Chikmagalur ZP.

They said that if Government fails to fill the post of CEO in another 8 days, they will lock the ZP building. All the members expressed their consent to the same.

DH News Service

Standing Committee

Names of the members unilaterally appointed by the President are as follows:

* Finance Standing Committee: President Gayathri Shanthegowda; Members: K M Kemparaju, Anthony, Manjunath, Venkatesh, Ashalatha D Jain, Hoovappa

* Standing Committee for Social Justice: President Shanmugha Bovi; Members: Bhagavan, Sathi Sundaresh, Shubha N Raju, Siddaramappa, Shivanna, Farahath Banu

* Standing Committee for Education and Health: President Jyothi Hemashekar; Members: Savithramma, Kariyappa, H M Sathish, Themmegowda, B L Sandeep, Krishnamurthy

* Standing Committee for Agriculture and Industry: Radha Sundaresh, Druva Kumar, Savitha Ramesh, Sathish, Chandramma, Shantha Veerappa, Belli Prakash.