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Poor attendance cripples Karnataka assembly

M D Riti in Bangalore

Poor attendance of the ruling Congress ministers in the Karnataka assembly has forced Chief Minister S M Krishna to issue a warning to his Cabinet colleagues. He has given them time till May 5 to improve their performance.

For over half of the last week the attendance of ministers was so poor that it became a major embarrassment for Krishna. The chief minister reportedly pulled up his cabinet colleagues at a meeting early this week and warned that he might even consider dropping some of them.

"The only excuse you can have for not attending assembly is an administrative emergency. And if that is the case, then you may stay in your office in Vidhana Soudha (the state secretariat) and be available if required in either House," he is reported to have told his ministers.

He also told them they must attend the assembly even if subjects pertaining to their ministries were not on the day's agenda.

"The presence of a minister in the House is a reflection on not just his individual performance, but that of the government as a whole," he said. "I myself avoid going on official tours when the House in session. I expect you all to do the same."

Last week work in both houses of the state assembly suffered repeatedly because of poor attendance.

Many ministers were away to attend the wedding of minister Dharam Singh's son in Madhya Pradesh. Krishna himself flew down there, but came back quickly. Some of his Cabinet colleagues, however, stayed back to participate in the extended revelries.

The situation in the assembly used to be particularly bad after lunch during this period. There would be little over 20 per cent attendance.

On one particular day, only four of the 24 cabinet ministers were present, forcing Speaker M V Venkatappa to ask chief whip C S Nada Gouda to trace the ministers.

Venkatappa went to the extent of proposing a punch-in system to ensure better attendance.

"I know it might reflect badly on the status of the ministers or the respect they command," he explained quickly. "But it may be unavoidable now. Sometimes the quorum bell rings continuously for over half an hour."

Krishna has now asked senior ministers to interact with Venkatappa and come up with a roster system to help ministers know when subjects pertaining to their ministries would come up in the House.

Krishna is likely to submit a full report on each minister to the party high command soon. This will follow a restructuring of his Cabinet and the axe might fall on ministers guilty of absenteeism.

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