K'taka Oppn members deny disrespect to Speaker

Bangalore, Apr 3 (UNI) The Opposition members in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly today clarified that they did not intend to disrespect Speaker Krishna by their conduct and decision to boycott the proceedings on March 29.

As soon as the House assembled for the day behind schedule due to hectic conciliatory meetings between the treasury and opposition benches, Leader of the Opposition N Dharam Singh said the decision to boycott came following failure of both the Speaker and the government to provide explanation to certain queries asked by J C Madhuswamy (JD-U) and G V Sriram Reddy (CPI-M) with regard to a Bill pertaining to mobilisation of taxes.

Referring to the criticism by some ruling party members that the Congress leaders were frustrated after losing power, he said the party had come to power after facing lot of struggles and was capable of facing any crisis.

He urged the Speaker not to take any hasty decision, especially with regard to passage of Bills. Other Opposition members too endorsed his views. Some of them expressed regret over the incident and clarified that their intention was not to show disrespect to the Speaker. ''We are not here to disturb the government's functioning with regard to developmental activities,'' they explained.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy welcomed the members' views and assured that he would incorporate all their suggestions made during the discussion on the budget in the fullfledged Finance Bill.

Stating that the government could not function effectively without active cooperation by the Opposition, he explained reasons for not taking Opposition leaders to New Delhi tonight to discuss various issues, including the Kalasa Banduri irrigation project, as the Union Irrigation Ministry had invited only the Chief Minister, the Irrigation and the Law Ministers.

The Speaker too appealed to the members to forget the incident and cooperate to maintain the dignity of the House.

UNI SR RG TS1607