K'taka winter legislature session in B'luru, not in flood-hit

The Karnataka cabinet on Wednesday decided to hold the winter session of the state legislature from October 14 to 26 at the 'Vidhana Soudha', the state secretariat here and not in Belagavi, as is the practice, as most parts of the district have been ravaged by floods.

"We have called for the legislature session from next month (October) 14th to 26th in Bengaluru," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhusway told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

He said the Deputy Commissioner of Belagavi has expressed his inability to host it there this time as people in the district were in distress after the recent floods.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa too on Tuesday had said that the Belagavi Deputy Commissioner and the district administration had informed him that they were not in a position to hold the session in the city as the region has been ravaged by floods and people are undergoing great suffering and hence the session would be held in Bengaluru.

It has been a practice to hold the winter session of the state legislature at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in the border district of Belagavi.

Belagavi in north Karnataka has been hosting the legislature session once a year since 2006.

The move was initiated by the then JD(S)-BJP coalition government, with H D Kumaraswamy as its Chief Minister.

This was followed by construction of the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, modeled on the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, by the then BJP government as an "assertion" that Belagavi is an integral part of Karnataka.

Maharashtra claims Belagavi should belong to it.

Belagavi is one among the most affected districts in Karnataka, where as many as 103 taluks of 22 districts were affected by the recent floods.

Madhuswamy said "Ninety per cent we will pass the old budget during the session, along with some supplementaries, as there is more spending towards flood hit areas and other things this time."