Karnataka assembly session begins today

After the formation of the new Congress-led government in Karnataka, the first session of the legislative assembly will begin today in Bengaluru. During the session, the newly elected MLAs will be administered oaths and a new speaker will be elected. Reportedly, this will continue till May 24.

As per sources, RV Deshpande, the Senior Congress leader will be the pro-tem Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for the ongoing session.

Notably, after the Congress party’s resounding victory in the Assembly elections, Congress leader Siddaramaiah was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka for the second time on Saturday. As Karnataka’s deputy chief minister, DK Shivakumar was sworn in. During the oath-taking event in Bengaluru, eight Congress MLAs were also sworn in as ministers in the Karnataka Cabinet.

Soon after being sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah the new chief minister of Karnataka issued orders to the newly elected cabinet to implement the five promises that were made by the party before elections.

Siddaramaiah reportedly stated, “Five guarantees in the manifesto were promised, and the order for implementing those five guarantees was given after the first cabinet meeting,” during the first cabinet meeting in Vidhan Saudha. After the upcoming cabinet meeting, which will be scheduled within a week, everything will be in effect.

The five main guarantees are 200 units of free electricity for all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 per month in assistance for the female head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of free rice for every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 per month for graduate youth without employment and Rs 1,500 per month for diploma holders without employment (both in the age range of 18 to 25) for two years (Yuva Nidhi) and free travel for women in Public transport buses (Uchita Prayana).

According to the initial estimate, it is anticipated that Rs 50,000 crore is required to be spent on all the promises made in a year.

Notably, the chief minister, Siddaramaiah is confident they will fulfil all the promises and launch new programmes, without affecting the economy, controlling unnecessary expenditure and will also avoid borrowing.