The Karnataka Assembly on Thursday passed six bills amidst slogan shouting and tearing of copies of bills and other legislative papers by the protesting Congress and Janata Dal-Secular legislators who have been stationed inside the assembly premises for the fourth day demanding a CBI probe into illegal mining.
The Assembly and legislative council proceedings have been stalled since on Tuesday as the ruling Bharatiaya Janata Party (BJP) has rejected a CBI probe. The Congress-JDS combine has been on a 24-hour sit-in in the assembly since Monday night insisting on a CBI probe. The Opposition legislators have stayed put in the Assembly, braving rodents, mosquitoes, and lack of soft beds as the ruling party showed no sign of accepting their demand to bring in the CBI to probe illegal mining and export, which the Congress claims is a Rs 60,000 crores scam.
The wood-panelled Assembly and council are in the stately Vidhana Soudha or the state secretariat in the heart of Bengaluru. The protesting legislators have been indulging in slogan shouting during the brief time the two houses meet, and spend the rest of the day in small talk, cracking jokes at BJP leaders, singing folk songs, dozing off in sofas and chairs and managing a few hours sleep in the night.
With morning coffee/tea to dinner inside the premises, the legislators briefly go back to their residences to freshen up. —IANS