Bengaluru: Rising to the demand of people from the coastal districts of Karnataka, the state government will table a bill on giving legal status to Kambala in a joint session of the state Legislature which begins here from Monday.
"The bill is ready and it will be vetted in a meeting to be held on Saturday. The draft bill sent to Department of Animal Husbandry for a detailed study, has reached the legal department. As chairman of the scrutiny committee, I will be going through the entire bill tomorrow", Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra told Deccan Chronicle.
He said as promised by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah last month, the bill would be tabled in the coming session for a threadbare discussion on 'Kambala', a popular rural sports of coastal Karnataka. The state Cabinet cleared the bill in its last meeting after which all necessary steps were being taken to accord a legal status to this sport. After scrutiny, the bill would be forwarded to the administrative department for further action.
Mr Jayachandra said the bill, after getting the nod of the governor, would be sent to the President for his signature as the current central act needs to be amended. This falls under the concurrent list because of which it should go to the President for his final seal.
In the current law, only Jallikattu and cart race had been mentioned. Now, even 'Kambala' should be included in that list for which Karnataka had to pass a legislation after tabling the bill in both Houses of the legislature. Members were free to discuss the bill and suggest changes, if any.
It may be mentioned here that people of coastal Karnataka had launched a campaign demanding legal status for 'Kambala'. A number of ruling Congress legislators had backed the movement and had pressurised the government to follow Tamil Nadu in getting legal status for the sport. The people too had launched an online campaign in support of Kambala and had held a massive protest in Bengaluru recently. Even the CM had declared his government's full support to Kambala and had directed the law department to swiftly act in this regard.
