Four Bills, including one on manuscripts, tabled in Karnataka Assembly

The Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Tuesday saw tabling of four Bills, including the Karnataka Jnana Bhandar Manuscripts and Digitisation Bill that seeks to provide for the survey, documentation, conservation, digitisation, research, publication, and public access of manuscripts in the State.

Tabled by Law and Parliamentary and Tourism Minister H.K. Patil, the Bill seeks to establish the Karnataka Manuscripts Authority to achieve these objectives.

The Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill that seeks to ensure that the secrecy of the ballot is maintained and protect voters from coercion, intimidation, and undue influence in the wake of the government’s decision to go for ballot papers in the elections to local bodies instead of EVMs was also tabled. The Bill seeks to ensure that the elections are conducted in a free, fair, and transparent manner, reflecting the democratic will of the people under Article 326 of the Constitution.

The Karnataka Police (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to include the reasons such as misconduct and dereliction of duty as reasons that could come in the way of ensuring a minimum tenure of two years for police officers, was also tabled.

The Karnataka Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill that seeks to provide allowances and other service conditions to Lokayukta on a par with those of the judges of Supreme Court or the chief justice of the High Court was tabled in the Assembly.