13-day-long Kerala Assembly session to start from Aug 7; likely to be noisy

Thiruvananthapuram: A 13-day-long session of Kerala Assembly, beginning on August 7, is expected to be stormy with the Opposition UDF gearing up to attack the LDF government on a host of issues, including the surge of political violence in the state.

The arrest of Congress MLA M Vincent, on charges of rape and stalking of a woman, and the summoning of Chief Minister and DGP by Governor Justice P Sathasivam in the wake of the recent murder of an RSS functionary in Thiruvananthapuram are expected to be taken up by the Opposition.

Congress-led UDF has maintained that the case against Vincent, who represents Kovalam constituency, was politically motivated.

The continuing fever deaths and the alleged failure of the state Health Department to contain the spread of them are also likely to make the session noisy.

The session, mainly convened for legislative business, will also take up Kerala Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan said the brief session was exclusively meant for legislative business.

Of the 13 days, ten days will be exclusively devoted for legislative business, two days for the business of private members and the remaining one day for demands for grants for various departments, he said.

The Kerala Medical Education Bill 2017, aimed at regulating private colleges, and Kerala Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill would be presented on August 7, he said.

The GST Bill and the Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) would be taken up on the second day.

A seminar on GST and its impact on the state economy would also be organised at the Assembly complex on the first day of the session, the Speaker said.

State Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac and experts from and outside the state would participate in the programme, he said.

Amendment bills relating to higher education, public service commission, Panchyati Raj and Maritime Board are among those to be presented in the upcoming session.