Pandemonium ruled the Karnataka Legislative Assembly with speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri refusing to heed the Opposition’s demand to take up adjournment motion and debate on the damage caused by floods in the State.

Coronary to the demands of Opposition that speaker should follow the precedence of taking up debate on people-centric issues, Kageri insisted that he will take up the issues only after various reports are tabled.

Irritated by the speaker’s action, Opposition parties led by Congress members resorted to shouting against the government, while Janata Dal Secular JD(S) members led by HD Revanna trooped into the well of the House.

This resulted in speaker adjourning the house for lunch and convening of Business Advisory Committee (BAC).

When the house reassembled, the speaker allowed discussion on floods by converting the adjournment motion into a medium-term debate.

Worst floods

Initiating the debate, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah said: “Our State is witnessing the worst aftermath due to worst floods in the recent history. More time has to be dedicated in the Assembly to discuss this issue in the direction of providing adequate relief measures.”

Former minister Krishna Byre Gowda tweeted “Full front page advertisements will not reduce the suffering of people affected by #KarnatakaFloods Not one rupee has so far been paid to even a single farmer for crop loss.Instead of wasting crores of rupees on PR exercise, the Govt should put money & efforts into actual relief.”

The Congress was taken by surprise as the Income Tax (I-T) Department conducted a series of raids on former deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara’s house and confiscated 30 properties associated with him and the trust he runs in Tumkuru and Bengaluru.

Reacting to this early morning raid, Siddaramaiah tweeted: “The series of IT raids on @DrParameshwara, RL Jalappa & others, are politically motivated with malafide intention. They are only targeting @INCKarnataka leaders as they have failed to face us on policy & corruption issues. We won’t budge to any such tactics!!”

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