It’s official. Bowing to pressure and criticism, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has spiked the proposal sent by the Assembly Speaker KB Koliwad to gift embossed gold biscuits to the 300 lawmakers and silver plates to secretariat staff with a whooping budget of rupees Rs 26 crore to celebrate 60 years of Vidhana Soudha, seat of power.
Siddaramaiah who is also the Finance Minister conveyed his decision to Speaker Koliwad and chairman of the legislative Council DH Shankaramurthy who have called on him on Tuesday to discuss the proposal. The said proposal had led to lot of public outcry when Bengaluru is deluged with unprecedented rain fury.
Expressing his displeasure at the plans Siddaramaiah said there is no need for presenting any expensive mementos for the legislators and asked them to limit the budget to Rs 10 crore. He also asked the two presiding officers of the legislature to limit the celebrations to a one-day affair instead of two. Siddaramaiah said “There is no gold biscuit or any other thing... there are no mementos." According to the earlier proposal submitted by the legislature secretariat to the State Government, each of the 300 legislators were to be presented a memento of a gold biscuit costing Rs 50,000 each while the secretariat officers were to presented with a silver plate. Siddaramaiah with the public outcry has now rejected the proposal on presenting costly mementos and also cut down on expenditure on the hospitality for the guests.