From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Apr 27: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah suffered a huge embarrassment to his plans to get a bill for the trifurcation of the Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagaraPalike (BBMP) hurriedly passed in the State legislature after being returned by Governor VajubhaiRudabhaiVala was thwarted by the Opposition-dominated Upper House, which sent it to the select committee of the Legislative Council despite valiant efforts by the treasury benches to prevent it.

The Opposition BJP and JD(S) joined forces in the Upper House and applied break to the Congress Government’s move to trifurcate the BBMP to refer the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill-2015 to Select Committee in the Upper House.

Efforts by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Law and Parliamentary Minister T B Jayachandra to dissuade Opposition BJP and JD(S) members from referring the Bill to Select Committee failed to yield any result.

Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy, had no alternative but to go by the will of the opposition-controlled House, when he gave his ruling on the issue under Rule 116 of the Rules and Procedure and Conduct of Business in Karnataka Legislative Council.

Though Jayachandra raised a point of order citing provisions in the latest edition of Kaul and Shakdar, which is being considered as the Bible of parliamentary practices and procedures, Shankaramurthy upheld the right of the Opposition parties in referring the Bill to Select Committee, after providing an opportunity to Siddaramaiah and Jayachandra to defend the Bill.

The ruling Congress party was prepared for any voting on the bill and certain defeat as it could then take up the Bill in the lower house again, get it passed and send it back to the Council, which would then have no alternative to pass it as failure to do so would result in the Bill being deemed to have been passed by the Legislature.

Defending the Bill, Jayachandra cited problem in providing civic facility to 198 wards of BBMP with a population of one crore and large scale corruption and stated that that trifurcation will help in providing transparent and effective governance.

When the Chairman put the bill for voting, Siddaramaiah sought an opportunity from him to present his opinion and accused the Opposition parties of politicising the issue and pointed out that former Chief Minister JagadishShettar and former Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Kumar had favoured restructuring BBMP in view of its ‘enormous growth’.

However, Opposition members tried to stall the Chief Minister accusing him of setting a ‘bad’ precedent.

But, an undeterred Siddaramaiah clarified that, the decision of trifurcation was a promise made by Congress in its manifesto.

“Though the government would have superceded civic body, we did not do so to protect the democratic values”, he said.

Showing the BJP manifesto, proceedings of a seminar on urban development, whereinShettar allegedly supported trifurcation and a newspaper report, in which Suresh Kumar had reportedly supported the present government move, Siddaramaiah said; “I don’t have any intention to misrepresent the facts. We have taken a conscious decision on trifurcation based on the recommendations of an expert committee headed by former Chief Secretary B S Patil”.

Siddaramaiah assured the house of taking public opinion before making further move. But the Opposition was not in a mood to heed his views and stressed for referring the Bill to Select Committee.

Jayachandra’s argument that “notice given by Opposition is defective” did not yield any result, as the Chairman pronounced his ruling on the issue.

It may be recalled that the State Government had committed itself before the Division Bench of Karnataka High Court to conduct elections to BBMP within six months.