Kerala Assembly session to begin tomorrow

The 11th session of the Kerala Assembly, devoted exclusively for legislative matters, will begin here tomorrow.

It is the first assembly session after the much-hyped Chengannur bypoll, in which ruling CPI(M) had retained its sitting seat with a remarkable majority beating opposition Congress and BJP.

While the members of CPI(M)-led LDF would come to the House with added confidence following the bypoll victory, the opposition Congress-led UDF MLAs are expected to take up a host of issues including the recent honour killing incident and alleged police inaction to beat the ruling bench.

The newly elected Saji Cheriyan, who won by a margin of 20,956 votes over his nearest rival D Vijayakumar (Congress), would be sworn in as the MLA after the question hour session tomorrow.

The by-election was necessitated by the death of sitting member K K Ramachandran Nair (CPI-M) in January this year.

Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan said as many as 17 ordinances were awaiting its turn to become Acts in the 12-day-long session.

The Kerala Municipality (amendment) Bill, 2018, the Kerala Panchayat Raj (amendment) Bill, 2018, Sri Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (amendment) Bill, 2018, Kerala University (amendment) Bill, 2018 were among the six bills that would be considered in the first two days, he said.

The discussion and voting on the supplementary demands for grants for 2018-19 would be held on June 13, Sreeramakrishnan told reporters here yesterday.

As per the schedule, June 14 and 15 would be holidays and the session would be concluded on June 21, he said.

As part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Kerala Assembly, a six month 'festival of democracy' comprising meetings of legislators and conferences would be held from July, the speaker added.

(PTI)