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Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday, December 18, said the Bill to replace the SC/ST reservation ordinance is one among a set of draft laws to be introduced in the legislature session at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi. The state government earlier brought in the ordinance hiking the reservation for Scheduled Castes from 15% to 17%, and for Scheduled Tribes from three per cent to seven per cent. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot gave his assent to the ordinance. Now, the state government wants to introduce the Bill to give more legitimacy to its decision.
With the BJP government's decision to hike reservation for SC and ST communities remaining vulnerable as it exceeds the 50% cap fixed by the Supreme Court, the opposition, especially the Congress, is likely to raise the issue. The reservation related demand by various communities like Panchamasalis and Vokkaligas is likely to be raised by members from both opposition and treasury bench sides. Also, the internal reservation issue among Scheduled Castes is also likely to come up for discussion.
During the session that begins on Monday, December 19, the issues related to northern Karnataka will also be discussed, Bommai said talking to reporters in Hubballi. Reacting to the agitation by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in Belagavi on the border dispute, the Chief Minister said the organisation had been indulging in such activities for the past 50 years. The state government knows how to control the group and the same is being done to keep MES under check, he said. The MES is a pressure group fighting for the merger of Belagavi with Maharashtra by reasoning that the district has a large Marathi-speaking population.
The winter session of the state legislature will begin at 'Suvarna Vidhana Soudha' in Belagavi amid the raging border dispute with neighbouring Maharashtra and around five months to go for Assembly elections in Karnataka. This will be the last session of the incumbent BJP government in the northern district headquarters town bordering Maharashtra. This session assumes importance for the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai-led administration, as only the joint session and budget session will be left before elections are announced. The polls are likely to be held by April-May 2023.
The 10-day session till December 30 is likely to be stormy as both the ruling and opposition sides are appeared to attack and counter each other on a host of issues. The opposition parties are likely to corner the government on issues like alleged corruption and scams in various departments, voter data theft scandal, the border dispute and its handling by the government, law and order situation with incidents of communal flare-up and cooker blast in Mangaluru, farmers' demands including an increase in fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane.
With elections round the corner, the opposition parties are also likely to target the government on the issue of governance, unfulfilled promises made in the manifesto ahead of 2018 polls, and infrastructure woes in several urban areas, especially Bengaluru, due to torrential rains and deluge caused by them.
Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri has said six Bills are likely to be discussed during the session. Of the six draft laws to be taken up for discussion and approval, four are new ones. Two Bills including the Kannada Comprehensive Development Bill, were already tabled in the previous session in Bengaluru.
Besides, the session is being held amid the raging border dispute with the trigger being the possible hearing on the issue in the Supreme Court, on a suit filed by Maharashtra. The row had intensified in the last couple of weeks, with vehicles from either side being targeted, leaders from both states weighing in, and pro-Kannada and Marathi activists being detained by police amid a tense atmosphere in Belagavi.
Maharashtra claims Belagavi and some nearby places belong to it. Stepping in to defuse the border tensions, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on December 14 held a meeting with chief ministers of the two states and asked them to set up a six-member joint ministerial panel to address related issues and not make any claims till the Supreme Court pronounces its verdict on the dispute.
Belagavi, bordering Maharashtra, has been hosting legislature sessions once a year since 2006. As many as nine Winter sessions have been held in Belagavi in 16 years. Seven of them were held inside the Suvarna Soudha and two outside. Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, modelled on the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat in Bengaluru, was built as an assertion that Belagavi is an integral part of Karnataka.
It has been a long-standing demand of the people of north Karnataka to shift some government offices to Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, aimed at addressing regional imbalance, and for the benefit of citizens of the regions, who otherwise have to travel to Bengaluru.