Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Question hour suspended

Thiruvananthapuram: The question hour in the Assembly had to be suspended on Thursday as the Opposition staged a sit-in in the well of the House and raised slogans demanding the resignation of Forest Minister Benoy Viswom.

As soon as the House assembled for the last day of the session at 8.30 a.m., Speaker K. Radhakrishnan called Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac to reply to a question raised by Rajaji Mathew Thomas, Palliparam Balan and K. Ajith.

While Mr. Isaac started reading out the reply on behalf of Minister for Local Administration Paloli Mohammed Kutty, who is indisposed, Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy also started to raise some issue.

The Speaker denied him the opportunity to speak. Soon, the Opposition members, except Mr. Chandy, sat on the well of the House. They raised slogans against the Chief Minister and demanded the resignation of Mr. Viswom.

A section of LDF members who tried to move to the well of the House were persuaded by senior legislators to return to their seats. Dr. Isaac hurried through the reply amidst the uproar.

In the absence of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, Minister of Home and Tourism Kodiyeri Balakrishnan moved the resolution to suspend the question hour in view of the sit-in.

Following this, the Speaker announced that the question hour was being suspended and left the chair at 8.34 a.m. Mr. Chandy stood for some time and later sat in his seat.

The Opposition members raised slogans demanding the resignation of Mr. Viswom till 8.49 a.m. The Chief Minister arrived in the House around 9.25 a.m. and the House reassembled at 9.30 a.m. following talks.

The Opposition members returned to their seats as the Speaker arrived and began the proceedings.

Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran, in reply to a question, said anti-water theft squads have been set up in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi to check the misuse and diversion of drinking water.

Dr. Isaac said the computerisation of panchayats will be completed by October this year. Already 600 panchayats had been provided with computers. As many as 148 block pancahyats and 14 district panchayats have also been provided with computers, servers and other equipments.

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