Kerala Assembly's budget session came to an abrupt end today a fortnight ahead of schedule after it was rocked by vociferous protests by CPI(M) led LDF over the violent clash in the House on its demand for Finance Minister K M Mani's resignation in the bar scam.
Amidst the din, the Assembly approved the Finance and Appropriation bills without discussion and Speaker N Sakthan adjourned the House sine die.
The opposition members marched in a procession to the house that was meeting after a week-long recess and trooped into the well holding up placards and raising slogans, demanding that the suspension of five of its MLAs be revoked and action initiated against ruling party members who allegedly misbehaved with its woman legislators on March 13, when Mani presented the 2015-16 budget proposals.
As noisy scenes continued and repeated appeals to agitated opposition members to restore order failed, Sakthan suspended question hour and other business listed on the agenda for the day and took up the financial bills for consideration and passing, which were moved by Mani.
The Speaker then took up the introduction and further stages of Kerala Appropriation (Vote on Account) Bill and Kerala Finance Bill 2015, which the House passed.
As soon as the House began, opposition leader V S Achuthanandan charged that the action against LDF MLAs was "unilateral" and demanded action against UDF members who allegedly misbehaved with their woman legislators on March 13, the day the state's budget proposals were presented.
The Speaker had suspended five LDF legislators for disrupting the budget presentation by Mani, who after reading out some portions had laid it on the table of the house.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy rejected the opposition charge and asserted that examination of the video footage of March 13 incidents clearly showed that UDF MLAs had not misbehaved with any woman opposition MLA.
He defended the suspension of opposition MLAs remarking that "the government had only acted leniently as the whole world had seen what actually had happened".
After the house passed the financial bills, Chandy informed the Speaker that as there were no more government business, the House may be adjourned sine die.
The Speaker had earlier called a meeting of floor leaders of ruling and opposition to find a solution to end the stalemate after the House witnessed unprecedented violence on March 13, which led to suspension of five MLAs- V Sivankutty, K T Jaleel,E P Jayarajan,K Kunjahmmed and K Ajith. But the meeting failed to arrive at a consensus on the matter.
