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A short calendar for session

Assembly Speaker K. Radhakrishnan to make efforts to ensure smooth functioning of the House.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Budget session of the Assembly this year will be one of the briefest with just 14 sittings scheduled between February 20 and March 19.

The session fulfils just the Constitutional requirements. The Opposition is gearing up for protests over a slew of issues. The issues include alleged complicity of Ministers in land scams, price rise, the plight of farmers, infighting in the Devaswom Board, law and order problems, differences within the Ministry and ruling front and alleged administrative failures.

The session will begin with the Governor’s address on Wednesday. There will be a brief recess until Monday when the House begins discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor for his address. The debate will conclude on Wednesday and the House will consider the final supplementary demands for grants for the current year and additional demands for grants for the previous years on Thursday.

Another recess will follow this and the House will meet for the presentation of Budget on March 6. It will take up a three-day general discussion of the Budget from March 10. The House will consider a Vote on Account for the expenditure relating to the first four months of the coming financial year and appropriation bills in the following days.

Only concluding day is listed in the calendar for other government business and it remains to be seen if the Bills before the House in the report stage would be taken up on that day. Of the four Bills in the report stage, the Kerala Conservation of Paddyfields and Wetlands Bill and the Kerala Fishermen Debt Relief Commission Bill are before the Select Committee. The other two are Coir Workers Welfare Cess Bill and an amendment Bill to entrust appointments in the Devaswom Boards to the Public Service Commission.

Speaker K. Radhakrishnan said the Business Advisory Committee would examine if the House could take up some of these Bills during the session.

He would make efforts to ensure smooth functioning of the House against the background of frequent disruption of the proceedings by the Opposition during the last session. The Speaker said that the House had met for 56 days last year (2007). This was a better figure considering the record of other State Assemblies. The Speakers’ conference had recommended that the legislatures should meet at least 100 days a year.

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