Criticism about Legislative Council calls for reflection, says Kageri

In the recent times, there has been much debate on the relevance of the Legislative Council. Some recent incidents in the Council, including the elections that were held in the year-end have triggered these debates, Legislative Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri said on Thursday.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Kageri said there were opinions that the Council had to be abolished. “In the wake of such debates, we need to seriously introspect about the situation,” he said.

Kageri had made a similar observation in his introductory remarks to the debate on electoral reforms in the Legislative Assembly recently. Taking objection to it, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council B K Hariprasad called it an insult to the Upper
House.

Responding to the criticism, Kageri said it was everyone’s responsibility to uphold the values of the Council. “Some MLCs have objected to circulation of the book on my introductory remarks. This reflects the state of affairs and also speaks about their political bias,” he said.

Having concluded the 19-day long budget session on Wednesday along with a nine-day session previously on the Governor’s address, Kageri said there were 116 hours of proceedings conducted. “In the recent years, such a long session had not been conducted,” he said.

As many as 13 bills were passed. There were 4,769 questions. Of this, 4,864 were unstarred questions. In this, 3,489 unstarred questions were answered. Of the 405 starred questions, 385 were answered. About 46 issues were taken up in the Zero Hour. There was also a 10-hour debate on electoral reforms.

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