Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Assembly session begins tomorrow

Roy Mathew

House will be in session till October 26

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Assembly session, which will last over a month, begins on Monday.

The main agenda before the House will be the consideration of full budgetary demands besides some important legislation.

Though the debate on the demands for grants will provide the Opposition plenty of time to scrutinise Government policies and actions, a sustained attack on the Government is not expected at this stage. The Opposition will find itself in the defensive if the ruling members dig up acts of omissions and commissions of the previous Government. Yet, there are quite a number of topics with which the Opposition can confront the Government.

The custodial deaths that occurred after the present Government came to power are sure to be used by the Opposition against the Government though it has ordered a judicial probe into them. The imbroglio regarding admissions to professional colleges will also be an ammunition in the hands of the Opposition.

The continuing crisis in agriculture and the financial problems of the State will be getting much attention of the House. However, the difference is that the ruling front and the opposition front could blame each other for the crises.

The safety of the Mullaperiyar dam will be a live issue for the House to debate. Both fronts agree that the dam should be rebuilt and a fresh agreement negotiated with Tamil Nadu.

Joseph's resignation

On the political side, the resignation of Public Works Minister P.J. Joseph and sectionalism in the CPI(M) are issues that the Opposition can use to embarrass the Government.

The allegations against V. Surendran Pillai (KC-J) and Babu M. Palisery (CPI-M) regarding the nominations submitted by them for their election are also live issues.

However, Speaker K. Radhakrishnan has clarified that he had not received any complaints in this regard and was not seized of the matter. Those were issues that should have been raised during the scrutiny of the nominations.

The Government will be highlighting the pro-poor initiatives it had taken during the past four months. Revenues have grown though there was bigger increase in expenditure. Policies and legislation to address the problems of the State are on the anvil. These will include measures to set up the Debt Relief Commission.

As per the calendar published by the Legislature Secretariat, the House will be in session tillOctober 26 and there will be 26 sittings during the period. It will consider the welfare fund bill for workers of shops and commercial establishments on the opening day.

The Speaker is considering restrictions on television coverage of the proceedings though not from this session. The proposal is to provide only edited video feeds to ensure uniform coverage.

The measure will curtail editorial freedoms and plurality of coverage. Many view the proposals as more drastic than those announced when Vakkom Purushothaman was the Speaker. However, the Speaker has said that there will be wider consultations before a final decision is taken.

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