ENORMOUS quantity of high grade wood from different forests of Karnataka was looted to rebuild Buckingham Palace, the official London residence and office of the British Monarch, said DB Chandre Gowda, former Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and the present Lok Sabha Member from Bengaluru north constituency by quoting the statement of Kengal Hanumanthaiah. Kengal was the chief minister of the old Mysore State (Karnataka) who constructed Vidhana Soudha, the seat of Legislature in Karnataka. Karnataka witnessed an important event on June 18. It was the Diamond Jubilee Celebration and DB Chandre Gowda was delivering his speech on the subject ‘Karnataka yesterday and today’.
The event brought former chief ministers—M Veerappa Moily, N Dharam Singh, HD Kumaraswamy and BS Yeddyurappa sitting next to each other though they belong to three different parties. HR Bhardwaj, Governor of Karnataka, former and present Speakers, Legislative Council Chairman DH Shankarmurthy, former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatachalaiah, senior parliamentarians and nearly 300 sitting Legislatures belonging to both Legislative Assembly and Council participated in the memorable event. The souvenir containing an exhaustive details from the first session to till today was released by the Governor. An impressive exhibition of rare photos was organi-sed as part of the 60th year celebration.
Highlight of the celebration was the felicitation of five MLA’s DG Thimme Gowda, Ambadas Rao, UM Madappa, Mulka Govinda Reddy and Vasantha Rao L Patil who represented the first Assembly held on June 18, 1952 at the Vidhana Soudha.
The first Assembly session had 99 MLA’s. People were happy to see the sportive spirit of five veterans who were part of the first Assembly. Many present MLA’s were seen touching the feet of these five veterans and taking blessings.
