Farmers Movement Archive

Farm laws: Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan denies nod for special assembly session

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has refused permission to the government to convene a special assembly session on Wednesday to pass a resolution against the farm laws passed by the Centre. It is reliably learnt that the governor denied permission for the session citing that he was not convinced about the urgent nature of convening a session for one hour when clearance has already been given for an assembly session from January 8 next year, for which only 15 more days are left. The governor had given clearance for the session from January 8 prior to the latest recommendation from the cabinet. It is learnt that the government could not provide a convincing reason for its change of mind. The governor is empowered to summon the House at time and place he thinks fit, according to Article 174 of the Constitution. No special one-day assembly session todayThe governor's decision will mean that the one-day assembly session planned by the government cannot be held on Wednesday. It is not clear if the government will push for a session on another day, which according to assembly sources, is unlikely to happen. “If at all a one-day special session has to be convened, it will have to be done before December 31, as the session can be held only with a governor’s address once the date shifts to a new year. The budget session, which begins with the governor’s address, has already been fixed for January 8,” an official in the legislative secretariat said. The state cabinet had on Monday decided to recommend to the governor to convene a session of the assembly on Wednesday to discuss the farm laws and pass a resolution against them. The assembly was expected to pass a near-unanimous resolution with both the LDF and the UDF opposed to the farm laws. It had passed a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 earlier by convening a special one-day session, thereby becoming the first state to do so. Lone BJP member O Rajagopal had then asked the speaker not to take up the resolution against a law passed by Parliament. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, meanwhile, termed the governor’s decision unfortunate and anti-democratic. He urged law and parliamentary affairs minister A K Balan to convene a meeting of MLAs in the assembly lounge and pass a resolution against the farm laws.

The Times of India

2020-12-23

Thiruvananthapuram