The budget session of the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly was guillotined on Tuesday in the wake of persistent protests by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) members.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan moved a resolution to cut short the proceedings, following which the Assembly was adjourned indefinitely on Tuesday. The Assembly passed the resolution by voice vote, bringing the curtains down on the session marked by strident Opposition protests and repeated disruptions.
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A sit-in protest by five Opposition legislators in the well of the House prompted the chief minister to table the resolution to cut short the legislative business and discontinue the session.
As the day’s proceedings began, Opposition leader V D Satheesan said that since the grievances of the Opposition with regard to the ‘fake’ cases registered against Opposition MLAs in connection with the protest in front of the Speaker’s office as well as denying permission for adjournment motion notices were not yet addressed, five UDF MLAs would be starting an indefinite stir in the House.
“Uma Thomas, Anwar Sadath, T J Vinod, Kurukkoli Moideen and A K M Ashraf will lead an indefinite protest inside the Legislative Assembly. The UDF is not going to be cowed down by pressure following the highhandedness of the LDF government. We are standing firm in our demands”, said Satheesan
Following this, Pinarayi Vijayan urged the Speaker to consider the bills which were expected to be taken up in the coming days and he moved a resolution to cut short the proceedings, which awas passed by the House by voice vote
The House, which was scheduled to be in session till March 30 and should have sat for nearly, 30 days, has now disbanded after 21 days, nearly half of half of which were turbulent.
Four bills, which were to be taken up individually in the subsequent days, were passed in less than five minutes without even a word of discussion on Tuesday. These included the Kerala Finance Bill, which will usher in the two-rupee fuel cess, and the Kerala Public Health Bill, which is a comprehensive legislation that seeks to bring all existing public health legislations under a uniform law.
