Bengaluru: The non-tabling of the Anwar Manippady report on the encroachment of wakf properties has taken a curious turn with Raj Bhavan reportedly issuing a notice to the state government seeking a clarification on why it had failed to comply with Legislative Council Chairman D.H. Shankarmurthy's direction to place the report before the House.
An MLC who was part of a delegation of the BJP and Janata Dal (S), which met Governor Vajubai Vala here on Tuesday, told Deccan Chronicle that the governor reportedly expressed his displeasure over misinterpretation of Section 10 (2) of the Karnataka State Minorities Act and tabling of only the Action Taken Report along with a memorandum citing reasons for rejection of the said report.
Mr Vala wanted to know why the government only tabled the ATR instead of the whole report. The governor is said to have told the delegation that the government cannot avoid placing the Manippady report in the Upper House.
The member said the governor also acknowledged meeting Mr Shankarmurthy on Monday. Mr Vala is learnt to have told the BJP-JD(S) delegation that his office had already issued a show-cause notice seeking reasons for not tabling the Manippady report.
Meanwhile, the day’s proceedings in the Council were disrupted following a dharna by BJP and JD(S) members on the issue of tabling the report with members trooping into the well of the House.
Ugrappa to BJP: We will go to people if you keep disrupting
Congress MLC V.S. Ugrappa said his party would take the issue of BJP legislators stalling proceedings in the Legislative Council to the people's court in case the five-day protest in the well of the upper House over tabling of the report submitted by Anwar Manippady does not draw to an end forthwith.
He told the media here on Tuesday that BJP legislators were hijacking the proceedings since last five days demanding tabling of a report rejected by the government.
Now, legislators of JD (D) have joined the BJP on the same issue, proving that these parties were like two faces of a coin. The government has repeatedly clarified that it had already tabled an action taken report along with memorandum explaining the circumstances under which the report submitted by Mr Manippady on encroachment of wakf properties was rejected.
Mounting a veiled attack on Chairman D.H. Shankarmurthy for meeting Governor Vajubhai Vala to seek his opinion, Mr Ugrappa said the Chairman ought not to have dragged Raj Bhavan into the picture.
The Governor had no role to play in such circumstances and instead it must be sorted out either within the House or at a meeting of the business advisory committee (BAC). Attempt to drag the Governor by BJP leaders and the Chairman was not a good sign and was the first such instance so far, he said.
