Variant fears: Govt staff oppose Belagavi session

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Secretariat Employees Association has appealed to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly to cancel the proposed joint session of the Legislature to be held at Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi from December 13 in view of the discovery of a new Covid variant.

In a letter to Speaker Visveshwar Hegde Kageri a copy of which was released to the media, association president Guruswamy said they welcome the holding of the Belagavi session but the current situation does not favour such a meet because of the discovery of Omicron, the new variant. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai recently held a meeting and recommended stringent measures to check the spread of the new variant since Belagavi shares a border with Maharashtra where Covid cases are higher.

There is likely to be a lot of movement of people from overseas and from domestic destinations and since hundreds of officials and politicians would be staying in Belagavi city for over 10 days during the proposed session, the chances of the virus spreading are higher. The Speaker must take a re-look and cancel the session scheduled to start on December 13, he added.