Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister T B Jayachandra on Thursday advised the newly-elected MLCs to stay away from bar associations and legislature lounges, if they really aspired to become good parliamentarians.
Addressing the MLCs at a training programme organised by the Training Institute, Karnataka Legislature, Jayachandra said that when he was a junior lawyer, his seniors had advised him not to “waste” his time by hanging out at the bar associations.
“It’s a well known fact that lawyers go there to gamble and gossip. As a lawyer, I never went there. Likewise, I never wasted my time by hanging out in the Assembly lounge,” he said, adding that the new entrants too should not while away their time.
Asking the MLCs to be disciplined and diligent in their attendance during legislature sessions, Jayachandra touched upon the importance of being around especially during the ‘question hour’. He said that Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 is spent on furnishing responses posed by the legislators.
“Sometimes lakhs of rupees are spent on preparing responses if the questions are too long. It will be ironic if you absent yourself at such a time, as the entire exercise will be futile,” he said. He also said that he had never absented himself from a session and that he had “100%” attendance. If the secretariat were to award a prize for this, then I will surely get it,” he remarked.
Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who inaugurated the training programme, was amused to see that less than a handful of MLCs had shown up for the training session.
“When I come late, I get criticised; when I come early, I am made to wait. Today I showed up on time, but the MLCs haven’t. Only six MLCs are present,” he joked.
He asked the legislators to be committed and show preparedness when they attend the session. It was also important not to lose one's temper or patience while participating in a debate, he said. He advised them to interact with senior members in the House and also pay close attention to their speeches.
He, however, lamented that a majority of the legislators these days failed to participate in the session, as they were busy with other activities.
When Siddaramaiah was speaking only a few MLCs, Rizwan Arshad, Veena Achaiah, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Vivek Rao Patil, Basavaraj Patil Itagi, M K Pranesh, Lehar Singh, Hanumanth Nirani and M Narayanswamy, were present.
