In the Assembly: Speaker takes ruling, oppn members to task

Belagavi: The turf war between former minister Mr Ramanath Rai and Mr Rajesh Nayak, BJP legislator, rocked the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, prompting Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to come down heavily on both the treasury and opposition benches on Wednesday. 

While the government was chided for trying to trivialise the issue, BJP members, who created a noisy scene were also taken to task for lowering the decorum of the House. 

The issue cropped up during zero hour, when Bantwal MLA Mr Rajesh Nayak said he was humiliated by supporters of Mr Rai and stopped him from attending Indira canteen inaugural Mr Nayak said district Minister Mr Khader was present in the scene, when the group stopped him from chairing the proceedings. However, when he filed a police complaint, FIR was not filed, he said.

Mr Khader said that he had personally called Mr Nayak and expressed his regret for untoward incident. He said the incident was not big enough to lodge a police complaint.

Mr Ramesh Kumar said that it was a very big incident, if the legislator was stopped by any group from chairing a function in his own constituency. “I want the Home Minister to take stock of the situation and ensure that such incidents did not recur. If any member of the House is stopped from discharging his duty, the House would henceforth consider treating it a breach of privilege.'' When deputy chief Minister Dr G Parameshwar stood up to reply, BJP members started slogans against him too. Mr Ramesh Kumar tried to persuade saying that he had batted in favor of BJP member and Deputy Chief Minister should make his statement. When BJP members continued shouting, Mr Ramesh Kumar lost his cool and asked them to do whatever they felt like. When the BJP members cooled down, Mr Ramesh Kumar said that the members should conduct themselves to uphold dignity of the house.

Dr Parameshwar said that he had not realised gravity of the incident and would get the video recording of the incident.