From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Oct 24: Karnataka’s finest architectural marvel of Independent India, the Vidhana Soudha, is all set and decked up for the grand day-long Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Wednesday.
President Ram Nath Kovind will be addressing the special joint session of the State Legislature in the morning followed by a short tour of the Assembly.
After lunch, three short films will be screened. One by director Girish Kasaravalli on the construction of Soudha and another by director T N Seetharam on the journey of the state legislature through the years. The last screening will be a 3D virtual reality video on Vidhana Soudha building made by Master Kishen.
Cultural programmes will be held on the steps of Vidhana Soudha in the evening.
One of the highlights of the programme is honouring the three CMs who were instrumental in conceptualising, designing, constructing and dedicating the Vidhana Soudha as the state secretariat.
Families of K C Reddy, the first chief minister under whom the foundation stone was laid by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; the second Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthaiah under whom the Vidhana Soudha took shape and construction work was almost completed and the third chief minister Kadidal Manjappa, who inaugurated it will accept the felicitations.
However, the State Government has distanced itself from celebrations in an obvious step to register the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s silent protest against the decision of the presiding officers of the two houses of the State Legislature – Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad and Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy – for taking all the decisions pertaining to the Diamond Jubilee celebrations without consulting the Government, even though the bills for the expenditure will be ultimately footed by the State Exchequer.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has deliberately scheduled a Special meeting of the State Cabinet at 4 pm on Wednesday triggering speculation that he is sending a message about his unhappiness about the celebrations.
The State Government is believed to have intimated that the Chief Minister would attend to official business as soon as the President leaves the venue and is unlikely to take part in any celebration planned for the rest of the day.
Incidentally, the State Cabinet meeting which was supposed to be held on October 21 was deliberately rescheduled to be held on Wednesday.
Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad and Council Chairman D H Shankarmurthy had originally planned a grand two-day celebration and presented a whopper of an estimate for Rs 27-crore to the Finance Department for approval.
The list of expenses apart from ridiculous sums for decoration, food and cultural programmes also intended to provide gold biscuits as gifts to all legislators and silver plates to all the secretariat staff.
Faced with flak all around, Siddaramaiah showed his displeasure by restraining the celebrations to just one day and cutting the extravagant expenses to Rs 10 crore, which is considered still generous as the cost of the 10-day celebrations of the world famous Dasara festival is a mere Rs 10 croee.
It is obvious that the Chief Minister seems to be keen on making a point to Koliwad and Shankaramurthy as he has scheduled a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, when the short film will be screened.
The State Government is unlikely to postpone the meeting of the Cabinet ministers, which usually runs up to two hours.