This will facilitate threadbare discussions on all legislations, he says

M.C. Nanaiah of the Janata Dal (Secular), on the day of his retirement on Monday, made an impassioned plea to Chairman of the Legislative Council D.H. Shankaramurthy in the Upper House to take up the issue of an amendment to the Constitution so asto have a Legislative Council in every State. This would facilitate threadbare discussions on all legislations.

Delivering his last speech as member of the House, Mr. Nanaiah said such an Act was necessary in view of the seriousness with which bills have to be discussed before their passage. He said that the Constituent Assembly had allowed Rajya Sabha to be a permanent House, while not extending the same facility to the Council in States. This lacuna must be corrected.

Giving a chronological history of the House, he said it came into existence in 1881 as Mysore Representative Assembly and became the Legislative Council in 1907. The Legislative Assembly came into being in 1952 after the first general elections. The Council is the oldest and has the natural right to continue, he said, arguing against the opinion of some who said the Upper House was not necessary.

He said Members of the Congress, Lower House, in the United States, used to say that “they pour the legislations into the senatorial saucer for cooling” and added that the American Congress members were of the view that the legislations vetted by the Senators were the only ones that could be considered as law.

He wanted Indian politicians to learn from such an observation.

Supporting M.V. Rajasekharan’s (Congress) criticism that moneybags were entering the portals of Parliament and State legislatures, Mr. Nanaiah reminded him that former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee had passed a remark before presspersons when they asked him about his government’s defeat by one vote in 1996: “There are commodities for sale in the market and brokers too, but I was not ready to purchase them.”

Mr. Rajasekharan (Congress), who also retired, expressed his happiness over his achievement as Union Minister of State for Planning during which he was instrumental in raising the plan outlay from around Rs.10,000 crore to Rs.13,000 crore.

The others who retired are S.R. Leela, Doddarange Gowda, M.R. Doreswamy, B.B. Shivappa, Bharati Shetty, K.V. Narayana Swamy, Siddaraju, K. Monappa Bhandari and A.H. Shivayogiswamy. Puttanna (JD-S) and K. Abdul Jabbar (Congress), who have been re-elected, have returned to the House.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Banglaore – July 01st, 2014