Poll code kicks in, House won't take up City issues

Developmental issues pertaining to Bengaluru will be kept out of the forthcoming legislature session with the model code of conduct for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections coming into immediate effect.

The State government also cannot make any new announcements pertaining to the BBMP on the floor of the House.

“The model code of conduct applies both inside and outside the legislature,” Legislative Council chairman D H Shankaramurthy told reporters in Bengaluru on Thursday.

The State Election Commission on Thursday announced the calendar of events for the BBMP polls and stated that the model code of conduct should be followed with immediate effect. 

The code will be in place till July 1. The legislature session is scheduled to be held between June 29 and July 24 in Belagavi and Bengaluru.

Shankaramurthy said questions by members pertaining to Bengaluru will be scrutinised by the Council secretariat officials before listing them in the business agenda. 

Ministers will also have to take precaution and refrain from making any new announcement pertaining to Bengaluru, he said.

On JD(S) MLA, M T Krishnappa, writing to Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa to permit him to move a private member’s bill to abolish the Legislative Council, Shankaramurthy said a legislator had the right to raise any issue.

However, he said the Upper House had not lost its sanctity or relevance. “There may be two or three members who do not deserve to be in the House... but most of them have the qualifications,” he said.

He agreed that the government should be more cautious while nominating members to the House.

Krishnappa had stated in his letter that the composition of the recent Legislative Council did not have any representation of eminent and qualified people.