KOCHI: Resuming from where they had stopped the other day, the Opposition went ahead with their boisterous protest over Sabarimala issue on the penultimate day of the 13th Assembly session as well that culminated in the premature adjournment of the House on Wednesday.
With the dharna of three UDF legislators entering straight 10th day, the Opposition took to the well of the House armed with placards and banner when the Question Hour commenced. They lined up before the Speaker’s podium raising slogans against the government for turning a blind eye towards the dharna of the members and also for persisting with prohibitory orders in the shrine.
Parakkal Abdulla, V S Sivakumar and N Jayaraj have been holding an indefinite dharna in front of the House demanding withdrawal of prohibitory orders in Sabarimala since December 3.
Despite repeated pleas from Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan to allow the House to function, the Opposition members were not in a mood to relent. The Speaker tried to pacify them saying questions on serious topics like health and inter-state river agreement were being answered and it was disheartening to see the House getting disrupted during that. But his repeated pleas went unheard and the Opposition members scaled up their agitation by several notches.
Hibi Eden, I C Balakrishnan, T V Ibrahim, M Vincent, K S Sabarinath, Anwar Sadath and Eldhose Kunnapilly clawed on to the dias of the Speaker and then held the banner high in a bid to obstruct the speaker’s vision. Miffed by this, the Speaker said raising the banner was akin to ‘thiranottam’ in Kathakali and that was not the right way to protest.
“Is the protest against the chair? This is not the right way,” he said. One of the protesting MLAs retorted that the MLAs have been holding dharna for the past 10 days. As the din refused to subside, the Speaker called off the Question Hour 36 minutes into it and rushed through the rest of the proceedings.
Amid the commotion, two bills - Kerala Fishermen Debt Relief Commission (Amendment) Act and Kerala Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Act - were passed. It was for the fourth consecutive day that the Assembly was adjourned.
‘Wrote twice to Centre regarding Tvm airport’
T’Puram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the state government has twice written to Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu urging him to re-examine the decision to handover the development and management of Thiruvananthapuram Airport to private companies.
Pinarayi informed the Assembly that the Centre was requested to handover the service of the airport to the state, in view to its experience in construction and handling of airports. A delegation led by the Chief Secretary has met secretaries concerned to discuss the matter, Pinarayi said.