Seven Cong members suspended from K'taka Council

Bangalore, Feb 14 (UNI) Seven Congress members were today suspended from the Karnataka Legislative Council for the rest of the session for stalling the House proceedings.

Council Officiating Chairman N Thipanna suspended the members, in addition to the 26 Congress members suspended yesterday.

When the House assembled, Congress members, including Prof B K Chandrashekhar, S Ravi and R V Venkatesh, raised slogans against the Government on the issue of appointment of Mr Thipanna as Officiating Chairman.

Mr Venkatesh displayed a placard, protesting against Mr Thipanna and raised slogans in the House. This drew loud protests from the treasury benches and nothing was heard in the din.

Mr Thipanna appealed to the agitating members to resume their seats and allow the House to be conducted smoothly. As his appeal fell on deaf ears, he suspended seven Congress members. The extreme step was being taken for showing disrespect to the Chair and disrupting proceedings, he said, adjourning the house for an hour.

When the House re-assembled, the two JD(U) members M P Nadagouda and Basavaraj Bommai sought permission from the Chair to speak on the suspension of Congress members and blamed both the Opposition and ruling parties for creating a situation, which culminated in the suspension.

Mr Nadagouda took exception to the Government not taking the Opposition into confidence while appointing Mr Thipanna as the Officiating Chairman. The Government had also not taken any initiative to convene a floor leaders meeting to resolve the issue.

Mr Bommai urged the State Govenrment to take the initiative to settle the issue.

Both the members later staged a walkout in the House in protest against conducting business in the absence of the main opposition party.

UNI