Karnataka Assembly sounds alert, cautions legislators after LS security breach
Belagavi, Dec 13: Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Wednesday sounded an alert, asking legislators to observe utmost caution and do proper verification before issuing visitor's passes to people, following two persons jumping into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery.
The government and the Assembly Speaker stressed the need to ensure proper security and strict monitoring to avoid any such untoward incidents during the ongoing legislature session here and in future in Bengaluru.
Terming the incident in Parliament as both condemnable and a warning bell, Speaker U T Khader said, a thorough investigation has to be conducted and strict punishment given to those behind it.
Stating that legislators and public representatives issue passes to people with good intention, despite not knowing them, Khader cautioned MLAs to be responsible and said, "strictly scrutinise before issuing passes, without knowing the identity and verifying Aadhaar card, don't issue passes."
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The Speaker also asked MLAs not to entertain people unnecessarily in Vidhana Soudha premises to ensure security, and said he has spoken to Home Minister, intelligence officers, Police, Deputy Commissioner, Marshals and other officials to ensure proper security.
Condemning the incident in Parliament, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, security and protection of places like Parliament and Vidhana Soudha are important and that he will ask the Home Minister to ensure proper bandobast.
Such an incident should not have happened and should never happen in future anywhere, he said, and also requested the Speaker to instruct the security staff to ensure that there are no security lapses and to remain cautious while issuing such passes.
"The incident in Parliament is condemnable, everyone has to condemn it. It is a warning to us too. Reports suggested that the pass was issued by one of our Lok Sabha members, I'm not sure, but while issuing passes it is good if it is issued to a known person," Siddaramaiah said.
The incident prima facie appears to be a security lapse, he said, adding, "it looks like probably they were not thoroughly checked; if checked properly such a thing wouldn't have happened, because everyone including Ministers and Leader of Opposition are checked at Parliament. I'm not making an allegation."
Asserting the need to be cautious at Vidhana Soudha too, Siddaramaiah said, it surprises him sometimes as to how so many people enter. "People may be good or bad, we won't know."
However, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, citing reports that Member of Lok Sabha from Mysuru Pratap Simha had issued passes to the persons who were behind the incident, said, " Pratap Simha is intelligent, I don't want to take names, but don't know why (he issued passes)."
As Simha is from Karnataka, Shivakumar claimed he was receiving calls from people asking as to why he issued the passes.
The DCM even said, "the Leader of Opposition (in assembly) (R Ashoka) should take the responsibility, he should give his advice".
Following this statement of Shivakumar, Congress MLA Nayana Motamma sought to know: "what would have happened if it was not a BJP MP and someone else issued the pass."
This drew strong objection from BJP legislators, leading to war of wards between treasury and opposition benches.
Ashoka said, Shivakumar and Congress were trying to politicise the issue. "His brother (D K Suresh) is also an MP, he too would have issued passes....this attempt to politicise is not right."
Shivakumar said, "as it is the matter of Parliament's security, I wanted to know your stand...your MP issued the pass. You have to condemn."
Jumping to Shivakumar's defence, Minister Priyank Kharge too said, "what would have happened if the pass was issued by Congress MP? They would have called us 'Desha Drohi'. We are asking how your MP issued....."
Countering it, Ashoka asked, "Did we hold Shivakumar responsible for the Mangaluru cooker bomb incident, following his statement regarding the bomber."
This led to heated arguments between Congress and BJP MLAs forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for some time.
Earlier raising the issue in the Assembly, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said, such a breach of security at a place like Parliament is worrying and has highlighted the need for us to be cautious.
Condemning the incident, Ashoka said, whether it is a security breach will be known after the investigation, and action will be taken.
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2 LPG tankers sail through Strait of Hormuz, 16 still stranded
New Delhi (PTI): Two more Indian-flagged LPG tankers have safely crossed the war-hit Strait of Hormuz and are headed for Indian ports even as 16 other vessels remain stranded in the Persian Gulf, officials said Monday.
LPG vessel Green Sanvi carrying 46,650 tonnes of LPG is scheduled to reach Indian port on April 7 while Green Asha with 15,500 tonnes of cargo is scheduled to touch Indian coast on April 9, said Mukesh Mangal, Additional Secretary in Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways at a news briefing.
"Indian maritime operations remain safe and uninterrupted amid West Asia crisis. 16 Indian-flagged vessels with 433 seafarers are in the region; two LPG carriers, Green Sanvi and Green Asha, safely crossed Strait of Hormuz," he said.
With this, eight Indian-flagged LPG tankers have safely transited through the strategic waterway, which has remained effectively shut since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28 and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
Of the vessels still stuck in the Persian Gulf, one is of a loaded liquefied natural gas (LNG), two are LPG tankers (one loaded and one empty), six are crude carriers (five loaded, one empty), three are container ships, one is a dredger, one is carrying chemical cargo and two are bulk carriers, he said.
Asked about reports of Iran charging a fee for letting ships cross the strait, Mangal said, "we have no information of such payments."
For a country that relies on imports from Gulf nations to meet as much as 60 per cent of its cooking gas needs, the arrivals will help ease the worst LPG shortage it is battling in decades. India consumed 33.15 million tonne of LPG last year, with imports accounting for about 60 per cent of demand. As much as 90 per cent of those imports came from West Asia.
The US-Israel attacks on Iran, and Tehran's sweeping retaliation have all but halted shipping through the strait - the narrow shipping lane that is the conduit for oil and gas exports from Gulf countries to the world. Iran has, however, stated that "non-hostile vessels" may transit the waterway after coordinating with Iranian authorities.
Last week, two LPG carriers, BW TYR and BW ELM, carrying combined LPG cargo of about 94,000 tonnes safely transited the region. While BW TYR reached Mumbai on March 31, BW ELM docked at New Mangalore on April 1.
Prior to that, four Indian-flagged LPG tankers had safely sailed through the strait. Pine Gas and Jag Vasant, carrying 92,612 tonnes of LPG, reached Indian ports between March 26 and March 28. MT Shivalik and MT Nanda Devi, carrying about 92,712 tonnes of LPG, had reached Mundra port in Gujarat on March 16 and Kandla port in the state on March 17.
Originally, there were 28 Indian-flagged vessels in the Strait of Hormuz when the war in West Asia broke. Of these, 24 were on the West side of the strait and four on the East side. Eight vessels from the west side and two from east have managed to sail to safety.
Besides the eight LPG tankers, the Indian-flagged oil tanker Jag Laadki, with 80,886 tonnes of crude oil from the UAE, reached Mundra on March 18.
Another tanker, Jag Prakash, carrying gasoline from Oman to Africa, had previously safely crossed the strait and is en route to Tanzania.
