The move comes in the wake of criticism of the decline in the number of sittings, low attendance of MLAs, frequent disruptions and poor quality of debates.
In 2012, the 225-member assembly made it mandatory to transact business for at least 60 days a year. However, sessions have been held for less than 45 days in the last few years and a record low of 32 days in 2021.
“We’ll conduct a longer legislature session, starting from the joint session in January followed by the budget one in February-March. We’ll even try to extend the days for the next winter session to ensure MLAs get adequate time and chance to express grievances,” Bommai told the legislative assembly.
Several MLAs cutting across party lines expressed concern over frequent disruptions, deteriorating quality of debates and poor turnout of MLAs, which has particularly been an issue during recent legislature sessions. “People have an impression that many lawmakers haven’t been participating in the debates zealously and some also think usage of words and quality of debates has been deteriorating over the years. This is not done. If we don’t use these powers and privileges, we have only ourselves to blame. We need to keep traditions alive to save democratic institutions,” said speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri. Kageri also expressed anguish over members not heeding his orders and taking more than the required time in debating issues.
The anguish were shared by senior legislators, including former chief ministers BS Yediyurappa, HD Kumaraswamy, law minister JC Madhuswamy, former speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, senior Congress MLA R Ramalinga Reddy and JD(S) MLA HD Revanna.
Yediyurappa said it’s the speaker’s duty to fix the time depending on the importance of the subject and ensure members stick to it. Responding to this, Kageri sought to know why senior party functionaries don’t come to his rescue when their party MLAs cause disorder in the house.
Congress MLA and former law and parliamentary affairs minister Krishna Byre Gowda urged the government to increase the time frame for the upcoming sessions to make sure every legislator gets enough time to speak about the issues plaguing his or her constituency.
“With members under pressure from people in their constituency, who are crucial for their political survival, they have to mandatorily raise several issues in the house. However, if time is restricted then they will decide to either not attend the assembly or speak out of turn,” said Gowda.
Revanna suggested the speaker and parliamentary affairs minister sit together to provide time for every party based on its strength, as is the case in Parliament, and ensure the issue is debated within that time.
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