Assembly session rescheduled to June 29 amid oppn protest

Thiruvananthapuram: Facing Opposition heat, the State government Monday rescheduled to June 29 the full fledged budget session of the assembly which began today in view of the June 27 Aruvikara bypoll and adjourned the house to meet again on that day.

A decision in this regard was taken at the business advisory committee meeting amid the CPI-M-led LDF protest.

The house also passed a resolution, moved by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, to reschedule the session calendar.

CPI-M veteran and Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan expressed LDF's opposition to the government move.

Speaking to reporters outside the assembly, CPI house leader C Divakaran said government was 'running away' as it was afraid to face corruption charges in the bar bribery scam.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of former Speaker G Karthikeyan, who represented the constituency. K Sabarinath, son of Karthikeyan is the UDF candidate.

Former Speaker M Vijayakumar (CPI-M) is the LDF candidate while former union minister O Rajagopal is the BJP candidate.

The session was originally scheduled from June 8 to July 2 and after a short recess, from July 20 to July 30.

The session began on a stormy note this morning with LDF members protesting against Finance Minister K M Mani, facing charges of corruption in the bar bribery scam. It ended with noisy scenes on the same issue.

LDF members moved to the well of the house shouting slogans against the FM when he stood up to introduce the Kerala Ceiling on Government Guarantees (Amendment)Bill, 2015.

With LDF protest continuing, Speaker N Sakthan completed the procedure of referring the Bill to subject committee and adjourned the house.

Earlier in the day during zero hour, LDF members staged a walkout, demanding the resignation of Mani and Excise Minister K Babu over the bar bribery licence scam.

Led by Achuthanandan, they staged a walkout when an adjournment motion sought to be moved by them, was disallowed.