Kerala Assembly proceedings suspended, to reopen from July 8

With the solar panel scam continuing to disrupt proceedings since last week, Kerala Assembly sittings were today suspended till July 8 after passage of demands for grants through the guillotine route amid vehement protest by the Opposition LDF.

The Opposition has been demanding resignation of chief minister Oommen Chandy over the solar scam issue since early last week. As the House plunged into uproar with ruling UDF and LDF trading charges during the Zero Hour today, speaker G Karthikeyan first adjourned the proceedings.  Later, he suspended the sittings when it re-assembled after a two-hour break as no patch-up could be reached between the two sides.  

The chief minister moved a resolution urging the Speaker to pass the grants without discussion and to suspend the sittings scheduled till July 8 in view of the continuous disruption of the proceedings since June 17.      

The LDF also took up the case of Girish Kumar, a staff member of the chief minister office call centre, allegedly seeking sexual favour from a woman who called him to air some grievances.

The Opposition also linked the incident to the solar scam and alleged the chief minister's office was under the cloud of suspicion and reiterated their demand for Chandy's resignation and judicial probe covering the entire gamut of issues that cropped up recently.     

Refuting the Opposition charge, home minister Thiruvanchur Radhakrishnan said as soon the complaint of the woman came to the government’s notice, the call centre employee was removed from service. When the minister made an apparent allusion to the sexual harassment case faced by LDF MLA Jose Thettayil (JD-Secular), the Opposition got provoked leading to noisy scenes.     

The House plunged into turmoil when leader of Opposition V S Achuthanandan made some adverse references to the family matters of Chandy. Sensing the situation slipping out of hand, the Speaker adjourned the House. When the sitting resumed, the LDF members rushed to the well shouting slogans.      

The Speaker then asked the government to rush through the day’s business and then suspended the sittings till July 8 based on the chief minister’s resolution.

Meanwhile, in the morning, the Left front demonstrated a rally in front of the secretariat demanding the resignation of the chief minister and seeking a judicial inquiry into the solar power scam. The LDF also staged rallies at all the district headquarters.