Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project wins Green Oscars

Bengaluru, Mar 11: Heated verbal exchange between Minister K Sudhakar and former Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar in the assembly over disqualification of 17 MLAs last year, continued to disrupt the proceedings on Wednesday, with both opposition and treasury benches pushing for a privilege motion and demanding action.

Chaotic scenes and adjournments marked the House proceedings, with both sides not ready to budge.

As the House met for the day, around 11 am, senior Minister K S Eshwarappa accusing Congress MLA Ramesh Kumar of using "expletive" during a debate last evening, demanded his apology and that he be kept out of the proceedings.

Sudhakar, against whom expletive was allegedly used by Kumar, said, the words used were unpardonable and he should be heard, as he has given notice.

Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah then demanded that he be allowed to speak first as he had given notice on Tuesday itself.

The Congress leader on his part has accused Sudhakar of breaching Kumar's privilege by allegedly making derogatory remarks against him.

Intervening, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri said he has received breach of privilege notice from both sides and would allow it only after the question hour as per rules.

Though Congress expressed its agreement with the Speaker about letting them raise the matter after question hour, BJP legislators including Ministers said, Ramesh Kumar should be suspended.

Pointing out that Kumar was not inside the House, some ruling party MLAs even called him "escapist" and demanded action against him.

Strongly objecting to it, Siddaramaiah questioned the ruling party's intentions in running the house smoothly.

As this was followed by heated arguments between both sides, the Speaker adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

When the house met after much delay at 12:55 pm, the chaos continued.

As the Speaker allowed Minister Jagadish Shettar to speak, who was requesting permission to raise a point, Siddaramaiah objected to it and said he had given notice first.

He said, "this is not correct, it looks like government doesn't want the House to function, they don't want discussion on the budget, they are purposely blocking the proceedings of the House".

However, some BJP MLAs reacted to this by shouting slogans "shame shame Ramesh Kumar".

As his repeated attempts to conduct the proceedings failed, the Speaker adjourned the House for lunch.

Sudhakar, while speaking during a special discussion on the Constitution on Tuesday evening had made critical remarks against the decision of Kumar, as speaker, to disqualify 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs under the anti-defection law, including him.

Angered by this Kumar, who opposed discussion on the subject, amid heated argument between BJP and Congress members allegedly uttered the expletive, which aggravated the situation and had resulted in pandemonium in the House last evening.

Bagalkote, Jan 27: The bank of Krishna River in front of Sangamantha Temple at Koodalasangama in Karnataka today witnessed the launch of women’s indefinite strike demanding liquor ban in the state.

Thousands of women from various parts of Karnataka have taken part in the strike being organised under the banner of 'Karnataka Madya Nisheda Andolana'.

The strike was launched to draw the attention of the state government to press for a complete ban on the sale of liquor across the state.

About 50 various organizations and religious pontiffs have extended their support for the strike. Food is being cooked on the bank of the river for the agitating women.

The women from Chikmagalur, Tumakuru, Raichur and Ballari districts are taking part in it.

Bengaluru, Mar 5: Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal's wife Priya Bansal has filed a dowry harassment case against the entrepreneur at Kormangala police station in Bengaluru, sources said.

Priya alleged that ahead of their wedding, her father had spent Rs 50 lakh for the arrangements and given Rs 11 lakh in cash to Sachin instead of a car. Further, she has also alleged that Sachin has been pressurising her to transfer all the properties that were in her name to him. However, after refusing to do so her in-laws started harassing her.

A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against Sachin and three others at Kormangala police station in Bengaluru.

The police are investigating the matter.

Further details awaited.