THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time in the history of the Kerala Legislative Assembly, discussion on both the Governor's Address to the House on Friday and that on the 2006-'07 Budget to be presented on February 10 would be telecast live.

Speaker Therambil Ramakrishnan told a news conference here on Wednesday that it had been decided to allow live telecast of the two important discussions in keeping with the national trend towards greater accessibility to the media in the proceedings of the Legislature and in the hope that this would raise the level of discussion in the House. Any channel that wished to telecast these discussions live would be allowed to do so. In case the House took up any major legislation, proposals for telecasting the relevant discussions would also be considered, he said.

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the session beginning on Friday would be the last one of the Eleventh Kerala Assembly. It would last 15 days. The main feature of the session would be presentation of the 2006-'07 Budget. The discussion on the motion of thanks for the Governor's Address would take place from February 6 to 8 and that on the budget would take place from February 13 to 15. There could be minor changes in the programme depending on the expected visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on February 8. The Business Advisory Committee of the House would meet and take appropriate decisions in case a change in the schedule of sitting became necessary, he added.

The Speaker said that as many as 21 Ordinances issued during the inter-session period and 21 Bills remained to be legislated. The Bills and Ordinances would be taken up on the basis of the priority to be decided by the Government. The Eleventh Assembly, he said, would have met for 258 days by the time the ensuing session concluded. This was far less than the number suggested by the All India Presiding Officers' Conferences, but far better than that by several other State Legislatures. His own view was that the House should meet more often for short sessions so as to be more contemporary in its debates. The Speaker said the computerisation of the Assembly had made an impressive progress. He said once all the computerisation parameters were achieved, it would become the first fully computerised Legisalture library in the country. The formal inauguration of the computerised library would take place during the coming session of the House, he said.

Mr. Ramakrishnan said a major training initiative for the Legislature staff had also been initiated with the objective of familiarising the new generation with the Legislature procedures, norms and precedents and giving in-service refresher training to the older staff members. A special training cell had been set up for the purpose, he said.

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