Chennai: The state government has decided to hold the winter session of the Assembly, which begins on Thursday, for three days despite Opposition parties demanding a lengthier session to discuss several “burning” issues. The session will be the first for Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam in the absence of his party supremo and former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who has been convicted and let out on bail in connection with the disproportionate assets case.
And aiming to cash in on Ms Jayalalithaa’s absence in the Assembly, the Opposition parties, particularly the DMK has been targeting the AIADMK government and hopes to take on the Treasury Benches on a host of issues like the Aavin milk price hike and inter-state water sharing issue. Assembly Business Advisory Committee (BAC), which met on Wednesday morning with Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal in the chair, decided to hold the session, convened by the Governor K. Rosaiah, for three days.
Mr Panneerselvam, who holds the finance portfolio, will present the second supplementary estimates for the 2014-15 fiscal on Thursday.After taking up bills on the following day, the Assembly will meet on Monday (Dec.8) and wind up the session by taking the vote on accounts.Meanwhile, the DMK which participated in the BAC, staged a walk out of the meeting protesting against the decision to hold the session for three days.
Later, DMK whip Chakrapani told reporters that his party had sought the prolonging of the session for 10 days to discuss several crucial issues including milk price and power tariff hike besides constructing dams across Cauvery river in Karnataka. “But the government did not yield to our demand,” he added. Earlier, the government had made electricity minister Natham R Viswanathan leader of the House and further reshuffled secretaries of departments, including the chief secretary on Tuesday.
K. Gnanadesikan, former CMD of TNEB, was elevated as the Chief Secretary, while Mohan Verghese Chunkath was shunted out as state-run director of the Anna Institute of Management.
