Assembly session beginning Wednesday likely to be stormy

Assembly session beginning Wednesday likely to be stormy Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 28 (PTI): The stage is set for another possible face-off between Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the Left government on the opening day of the budget session of the Kerala assembly on Wednesday with the latter deciding not to remove reference to CAA in the policy address, against which the state was the first to pass a resolution. This is also the first time that the Opposition Congress led UDF has moved a resolution seeking recall of the Governor for "violating all democratic principles and publicly questioning the pride of the legislature".

Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan told reporters on Tuesday that the UDF resolution was permissible under law. "The Opposition's resolution is permissible under law. We will take a final call in the matter after discussing it in the business advisory committee," he said.

Ahead of the assembly session, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday wanted the Speaker to publish the notice of the resolution in the assembly bulletin and circulate it among the members. Khan,who has been at loggerheads with the government over not being informed before moving a petition in the Supreme Court against the Citizenship Amendment Act, has also made it clear he was not a "rubber stamp" and had termed the state's act as "improper".

Kerala has been in the forefront of the anti-CAA stir and was the first state to pass a resolution in the assembly seeking to scrap the new law and move the apex court against it, saying it was contradictory to Constitutional ethos. Following Kerala's footsteps, the Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal assemblies also passed similar resolutions.

The state budget will be presented on February 7 and all eyes will be on Finance Minister Thomas Isaac on how he would help the cash-strapped state raise resources. The bill seeking to increase the number of wards in local bodies is expected to be tabled in the House on February 6.

The government decided to take the legislative route after the Governor raised certain objections to an ordinance on the same. The opposition had also objected to the government move, alleging it was "politically motivated" as the local body polls were round the corner.

Chennithala also wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday asking what wrong the two CPI(M) student activists-- Allan Shuhaib and Taha Fasal had done to be branded as Maoists and slapped with UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) in November last year. The Congress leader had also recently met the parents of the two youths at Kozhikode and promised all help to them.

Fazal, a journalism student and Alan Shuhaib, studying law, in their twenties, were arrested from Kozhikode on November 2 2019 on the suspicion of having Maoist links after some pamphlets were recovered from them. The 10-day assembly session will conclude on February 12.

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