Winter session of Karnataka legislature from December 7

The Karnataka cabinet on Wednesday decided to hold the winter session of the state legislature from December 7 to 15. The session will be held at Vidhana Soudha here, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy told reporters here.

"We had made a rule regarding holding legislature sessions, according to it, between November and December a session should be held. It has been decided by the cabinet to hold a legislature session between December 7 to 15," he said.

Due to prevailing COVID-19 situation, the monsoon session held in September was curtailed by two days. Other decisions taken by the cabinet included approval to the list of holidays for the year 2021. There will be 21 general holidays and 19 restricted holidays, the Minister said.

The cabinet also gave its approval for creation of a corporation for the Maratha community, days after the government announced the setting up of the Maratha Development Authority. Clarifying on this Madhuswamy said, the authority has to be constituted by a law and an act needed to be enacted. So far, such an authority had not been constituted for any community.

Various Kannada organisations have protested against the government's decision to establish the Maratha Development Authority, forcing Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday to clarify that it had nothing to do with the Marathi language, was for the Maratha community residing in the state. Detailing about the other cabinet decisions, the Minister said, Rs 1,000 crore will be spent in the days to come for providing immediate relief for those affected by recent floods.

He said, the centre has recently released Rs 500 odd crore relief fund for Karnataka and the state will be adding about Rs 4,000 crore for providing the succour. It was also decided that the government hereafter can take disciplinary action against its official or employee without consulting the Karnataka Public Service Commission.