Basavaraj Bommai braces for first assembly session as Karnataka CM

BENGALURU: Basavaraj Bommai is preparing to attend his first legislative session as the chief minister amid discontent in a section of BJP over how cabinet berths were handed out. He also faces some complex issues: reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and the dispute with Tamil Nadu over sharing river water.
Minister for law and parliamentary affairs JC Madhuswamy said on Monday that the government was planning to convene the monsoon session of the assembly and council in September and the dates would be discussed during the cabinet meeting on Thursday.
“We want to call the session in the first week of September. Some legislators have suggested that it should be scheduled after the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations on September
10. The pros and cons will be discussed in the cabinet meeting and the session will be called latest by the second week,” he added.
It is a constitutional requirement that a legislative session should be held within six months after the end of the previous session. The last one, which was the budget session, ended on March 24. As per the rule, the next one must be conducted before September 24.
Four ordinance replacement bills, including ones related to general transfers of teachers and extending the government scheme of compensatory transferable development rights to districts beyond Bengaluru, are expected to come up in the legislature. Four amendment bills, including one for reducing stamp and registration duty for moderately priced flats, are also likely to be considered.
But there will be considerable focus on Bommai. “He will be attending his first session as the CM, and it will test his administrative and leadership skills. On the one hand, some legislators are voicing displeasure (over cabinet appointments). On the other hand, there are matters like OBC reservation that could snowball,” said GB Patil, the national general secretary of the Jagathik Lingayat Mahasabha.
The central government has restored the power of states to draw up the OBC list. The development comes at a time when the state government is studying the demand of Panchamasalis, a Lingayat subsect, to reclassify their community from 3B to 2A. They have asked the government to spell out what it intends to do by September 15, just before the monsoon session.
Congress members, meanwhile, have revived their demand that the government should accept the H Kantharaju commission’s report on caste census and reclassify reservation groups based on their population. “The state government has been putting the onus on the Centre, but it cannot avoid a decision now. It must make its stand clear on caste census during the forthcoming session,” said state Congress president DK Shivakumar.
He added that Congress, the main opposition party, would also demand action on the Mekedatu project, which Tamil Nadu opposes, and reduction of tax on fuel.