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Muniratna and G. Janardhana Reddy having a discussion during the Legislative Assembly session in Belagavi on Monday.
| Photo Credit: special arrangement
The Legislative Assembly on Monday witnessed noisy scenes with the ruling and the Opposition party members raising slogans against each other during a debate on allegations against Muniratna, R.R. Nagar MLA.
Raising the issue, the Congress’ P.M. Narendraswamy demanded that the MLA should be suspended from the House in the wake of several allegations against him, including bribery, criminal intimidation, and caste abuse.
Pointing out that the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) had confirmed that the voice in an audio recording of a conversation with a contractor is that of Mr. Muniratna, Mr. Narendraswamy said it was against the dignity of the House to “tolerate” a legislator with several allegations against him.
He demanded that the Speaker pass a ruling that the legislator should not attend the House.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok intervened and said that the case regarding the allegations was in court and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been formed to probe it. “In such a situation the subject cannot be taken up for discussion,” he said.
At this point, a heated debate ensued and Speaker U.T. Khader adjourned the House for a short while. After the session resumed, the Speaker deferred the discussion to Tuesday.
‘Release funds’
Earlier, the BJP’s V. Sunil Kumar alleged that the government had not released funds for development in the last two years. This had hit infrastructure development works in almost all constituencies and people were facing a lot of hassles, he said.
Alleging that the government had gone bankrupt as it was diverting all funds for the guarantee schemes, Mr. Kumar demanded a White Paper on grants given to MLAs for area development.
“The government should immediately release ₹100 crore grants each to all constituencies for development. There is no money even for minor repairs,” he said.
When the Opposition members continued blaming the guarantee schemes for the lack of funds for development, K.M. Shivalinge Gowda, Arsikere MLA, asked why the Opposition members were not demanding for the guarantee schemes to be stopped. The Speaker said the government will reply to the issue on Tuesday.
Published – December 16, 2024 09:12 pm IST
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