Karnataka governor HR Bharadwaj has returned an ordinance promulgated by the ruling BJP to regularise illegal buildings around Bangalore.This is likely to dent party?s efforts to win support ahead of local polls in the city.
The governor, in a decision that comes even as the code of conduct for the local polls kicks in, has cited inability to bypass the legislature and judiciary as reasons for returning the ordinance for the regularisation scheme popularly known as ?Akrama Sakrama?.
The scheme actually dates back to 2004 when the Congress government had sought to move a legislation to regularise illegal buildings but had not met with the consent of the then governor TN Chaturvedi.
A modified Bill was, however, proposed three years later during the JDS-BJP rule but has been met with resistance. The BJP government has now come up with a further modified ordinance to push through the scheme.
Explaining his decision to return the ordinance to the government, Bharadwaj on Friday questioned the urgency for it. ?Do you expect me to bypass legislature and judiciary both and do something which I don?t know at all. So, I said debate it and come back after the local elections,? the governor said.
The rejection of the ordinance is being seen by the opposition Congress and JDS as a victory ahead of the polls to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike that is scheduled for February.
Much of the politics in Karnataka over the next few weeks is expected to revolve around the long pending polls to the state?s richest local body. Efforts to win votes have already been started by all political parties. The JDS has in some old city areas already promised marriage and honeymoon packages for residents in the run up to the polls. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda?s verbal abuse of chief minister BS Yeddyurappa a week ago is also seen as an effort to polarise the large Vokkaliga vote base in Bangalore.