Anti-suicide squad to be deployed

Belagavi: The Suvarna Vidhana Soudha has turned into a fortress with a three-layer security cover as 70 organisations have announced protests here during the 10-day legislature session that begins on Tuesday.
The debates inside both Houses and agitations outside are expected to generate a lot of heat. While the principal opposition party BJP has planned to lay siege to SVS for what it calls the Congress government’s failure on all fronts, several organizations will hold dharnas and protests on issues ranging from poor remuneration to sugarcane farmers to unresolved infrastructure problems in the north Karnataka region.
The BJP will also demand resignations of ministers Dinesh Gundu Rao, H Mahadev Prasad, K J George and Qamrul Islam for their alleged involvement in land grab cases. Their protest may extend to the party boycotting the ministers, when they reply to questions on the floor of the Houses.
Assembly speaker Kagodu Thimmappa told reporters here on Monday that he wanted the government to hold the session for at least 20 days here so that both Houses can sit for 60 days in a year. “So far, the House has met for only 43 days this year and I was expecting the government to hold 60 day of sittings. I am pained this has not happened,” he said.
Meanwhile, the government plans to withdraw the Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Protection Bill, 2010, passed during the BJP rule. The Congress had then opposed the legislation which banned slaughter of cattle and imposed stringent punishment for violations. The then governor H R Bhardwaj had sent the legislation to the President.
As several protests have been planned, the police department will deploy a 60-member anti-suicide squad at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha (SVS) here to avert any untoward incident like last year. A sugarcane grower committed suicide by consuming pesticide outside SVS during the last legislature session here.
Garuda, the anti-terrorism and anti-Naxal squad, also has been deployed as a precautionary measure.