THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Assembly witnessed noisy scenes over the fees issue in the self-financing medical colleges for the fifth consecutive day on Friday, while the hunger strike by three UDF MLAs entered the third day. The UDF members shouted slogans in the well of the House and Mr Anwar Sadath of the Congress even climbed speaker’s dais. As the question hour began by 8.30 a.m., the Opposition maintained that they would not cooperate with the question hour in protest against the government’s stand on the fees issue.
Some Congress MLAs, including Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, raised the matter when they were allowed to raise questions on other topics. Subsequently, Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan denied the mikes to the UDF MLAs. Mr V.T. Balram, (Cong), while moving the notice for an adjournment motion on the alleged demand of capitation fees by some self-financing medical college managements, alleged that the chief minister was paying scant regard to the Opposition. “Chief Minister is not even bothered to visit the fasting MLAs and was keeping off talks initiated by the speaker,” he said.
However, the chief minister maintained that the speaker had not invited him for any talks. Mr Sreeramakrishnan subsequently clarified that he only held separate talks with the chief minister and the leader of the opposition on Thursday and that no joint meeting was convened. After the speaker denied permission for the adjournment motion, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said that Opposition would continue the stir in the House.
Subsequently, the UDF MLAs marched to the well holding placards and banners and shouted slogans against the government. The speaker went ahead with the other normal proceedings. In the meantime, Mr Anwar Sadath climbed towards the speaker’s dais, but the other UDF MALs stopped him. The House was adjourned by 11.30. Meanwhile, Kerala Congress (M) staged a walkout after K.M. Mani alleged that the government was not initiating proactive steps to prevent collection of capitation fees by self-financing managements.
