Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council’s ethics committee proposed forfeiting of daily allowance to the MLCs in case the House gets disrupted without effective proceedings for half of the total time allocated due to protest or lack of quorum.
“To set precedence, this committee solicits to recommend for necessary amendments in the Business Rules of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council providing therein that in case the House gets disrupted without effective proceedings for half of the total time allocated for the day due to protest or lack of quorum, none of the members shall be entitled for the session fee-renumeration payable for the day,” a member of ethics committee said.
A meeting of the Committee on Ethics of the Legislative Council was held under the Chairmanship of MLC Firdous Ahmad Tak here on Thursday.
Legislators Bashir Ahmad Shah (Veeri), Mohammad Muzaffar Parray and Ghulam Nabi Monga attended the meeting.
The committee will seek suggestions from all the members of the Legislative Council in this regard before proceeding further in the issue.
“In recent years, the proceedings in the Legislature across the country have come to be largely characterised as unproductive, in view of ceaseless disruptions by various members on different public issues”, he said.
While the expression of dissent within the confines of parliamentary etiquette is a legitimate form of protest, the manner in which it currently manifests itself in legislature, is far from acceptable, he said.
The natural consequence of such behaviour is two fold. First, taxpayers’ money gets wasted due to non-functioning of the House and second, the legislative paralysis stultifies the overall governance in the country, he said.
Threadbare discussions were held on agenda points of the meeting, including ethical conduct of the members of the Legislative Council.
The Committee also decided that the agenda discussed in the meeting will be sent to the Members of Legislative Council for their views and suggestions.
It decided to conduct a study tour of Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and the Parliament House in the coming days.
The members of the committee gave their suggestions on the agenda points and conduct of the members inside and outside of the House.