Bengaluru: Even as opposition parties continued their protest in the well of the Legislative Assembly demanding the resignation of Bengaluru Development Minister, K J George, the government passed five more bills on Friday, including one pertaining to funds owed by mines to the forest department and another giving greater autonomy to the Karnataka Housing Board.
Although Speaker K B Koliwad warned the agitating opposition members that a budget of over Rs 1.4 lakh crore would be passed without a discussion if they did not resume their seats, neither the JDS nor BJP members were in a mood to give in .
The bills passed included one amending the Karnataka Forest Act to increase collection of forest development funds from mine owners, another amending the Karnataka Housing Board Act to empower the board to collect development and other fee from its housing layouts and apartments and exempting it from taking government permission for projects costing less than Rs 2.5 crores.
The House also approved amendment of the Karnataka Police Act, to allow the respective district deputy commissioners to hear the POSCO case instead of leaving it to the Regional Commissioners to do so.
