No-confidence motion against K'taka Speaker: Cong

Bangalore, Dec 6: Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly N Dharam Singh today said his Congress party would move a no-confidence motion in the next Assembly session against Speaker Krishna for his alleged misconduct in nominating Congress members to a House Committee on land scam.

Talking to reporters here, he said the Speaker had taken the liberty to nominate Congress members to the A T Ramaswamy Land Scam Inquiry Committee, without consulting with or taking his consent.

The convention of the House with reference to the constitution of any House Committee was that the leaders of various parties should be taken into confidence, he noted.

The Congress had nominated the names of Mr D K Shivakamar, Mr A Krishnappa and Mr Ramalinga Reddy, but the Speaker had included only Mr Reddy, he said, adding that it was the duty of the Speaker to maintain proportionate representation to various groups in the Committee based on their respective strength in the House.

''It is amply evident that the Speaker has deliberately violated the convention of the House and has preferred to shamelessly connive with the ruling party to enable it to produce a report to suit the political needs of the ruling party, giving a go by to the basic purpose for which the Committee was constituted,'' Mr Singh said.

He said it was highly objectionable and unfortunate that the Speaker was playing an active role in making efforts to cause dissension in the major opposition party by this kind of behaviour.

''The Congress will go all out to defeat the designs of the ruling party, which in an unholy alliance with the Speaker, is attempting to manipulate the functions of the Committee indirectly,'' he said.

UNI