Mavunkal case, COVID death reporting likely to be raised in 3rd Kerala assembly session

The third session of the 15th Kerala Assembly is scheduled to commence from Monday and controversial issues like Monson Mavunkal's alleged links to police officers, guidelines on reporting of COVID deaths, and reopening of schools are expected to be raised during its sitting by the UDF-led opposition.

Congress leader and Thrikkakara MLA P T Thomas told PTI that besides these, another matter which may be raised during the assembly sitting was women's safety and a final decision on issues to be taken up will come after discussions with Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan.

Some other issues on which the opposition has criticized the Left government include the delay in completion of the Vizhinjam port project undertaken by Adani Group and the alleged impracticality of the ambitious Silverline project of the state.

At the same time, the opposition may have to be prepared to defend the allegations against KPCC president K Sudhakaran in connection with Mavunkal and the internal problems and differences in the Congress party, which could be used by the government to counter the criticism aimed at it. The assembly, which will sit for 24 days from October 4 to November 12, is also expected to take up for discussion the Supplementary Financial Statement for the financial year 2021-22, according to the calendar of sittings, Speaker M B Rajesh said recently.

Of the 24 days, 19 days have been allotted for legislative matters, 4 days for non-official matters, and one for consideration of supplementary requests.

The 3rd session, which is going to be paperless from November 1 as part of the 'E-Assembly project, has been convened primarily for the purpose of making laws as due to the COVID-19 pandemic several bills could not be passed to replace around 45 ordinances, which were issued due to lack of an adequate number of sittings.

Some of the bills which would be considered during the first two days of the assembly session are - Kerala Employment Guarantee Workers Welfare Fund Bill 2021, Kerala Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Kerala Urban and Rural Planning (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Kerala Municipality (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Kerala State Goods and Services Tax 2021 (Amendment) Bill and Kerala General Sales Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2021, he had said in a release.

A bill for ensuring good quality of fodder will also be introduced in the present session, State Animal Husbandry Minister J Chinchu Rani had said.

The Speaker, in the release, had also said that allowing public access to the assembly's visitor gallery was also being considered in view of the slight decline in COVID infection numbers.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)