Now, legislators get lunch during sessions

Food will be served to members of both Houses of the legislature on the premises of the Vidhana Soudha, during sessions in future.

This is intended to stop legislators from skipping the post-lunch session, on the pretext of going out for lunch.

This was announced by Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad said here on Tuesday. The menu will be prepared keeping in mind the health problems of several MLAs and MLCs like diabetes or heart ailments, he said.

The menu will be different each day, including boiled vegetables, chapatis, and fruits, apart from non-vegeterian fare. The decision to serve food during the session was taken after observing that many legislators go out in search of hotels to have food and skip the post-lunch session.

Earlier, Koliwad had proposed to replace the manual attendance with the biometric system to improve attendance and increase participation of members in the session.

“There have been complaints about legislators coming to the Assembly hall at their own will, signing the register and disappearing from the Vidhana Soudha to attend other works. This has to change as they are supposed to take part in the legislature proceedings,” Koliwad had said. A member gets Rs 2,000 per day as sitting allowance during the legislature session. However, this proposal is still pending.

Koliwad said an exclusive facility will be set up for legislators on Kumara Krupa Road in Bengaluru, which will have health club, swimming pool, multi-cuisine restaurant and recreational activities. The club will come up on 2.5 acres of land near Anugraha, the chief minister’s residence. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will lay the foundation stone for the facility in December.