A workshop on ‘Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council’

Nealy 26 individuals representing civil society organizations participated in the workshop. The participants were invited and given background of the Social Watch process in India and in Karnataka. Vasudeva Sharma explained the purpose of the workshop and the scope of the monitoring of Assembly and Council. The brief history, structure of the Assembly and Council were explained by Gururaja Budhya. A few suggestions have been made to be discussed further or be added in the report. These are as follows:

§ Importance of Question & Answer session in Assembly/Council,

§ Expenses incurred on the Assembly/Council sessions,

§ Status of yearly affidavits submitted to Lokayukta (declaring assets, property),

§ Who are asking more questions, 1st timers, 2nd timers, 3rd timers?

§ Whether these questions from Q&A session are linked with others business agenda,

§ Whether these questions are linked to the larger policy/context, who is asking these questions?

§ Preparations required for participating in the Q&A,

§ What is the procedure for asking Questions?

§ What are the steps involved in the whole process?

§ How many unanswered questions and what happens to these?

§ Prepare the list of business-schedule,

§ What is the follow up made by the MLAs? § How to interact with MLAs/MLCs based on our reports?

Core group was agreed to meet on 10th February 2012 at 9.30 am for further discussion and analysis.

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