Kerala Assembly to pass slew of bills

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On the first day of the 12th session of the 13th Assembly on Monday, two bills referred to by the subject committee will be considered.

The 2014 University Laws (third amendment) Bill and the 2014 Kerala Panchayat Raj (second amendment) Bill will be considered on Dec 1.

According to Legislature Secretariat office sources, these two were ordinances in the previous session and they will now come up as bills in the current session with just a change in the numbering of the ordinances. If earlier, these two were numbered as seven and eight, when they become bills, they will change to 18 and 19.

“During the last Assembly session which got over on July 17, out of 11 ordinances, only two could be passed. And the remaining two, the 2014 University Laws (third amendment) Bill and the 2014 Kerala Panchayat Raj (second amendment) Bill would be passed on Monday”, said a legislature department official.

Once the University Bill is passed, it will provide academic autonomy which gives the privilege to a college or a university to conduct academic programmes, develop syllabus for respective subjects, devise teaching, learning and evaluation methods and conduct examinations leading to the award of a degree, diploma or a certificate.

In the coming days, seven taxation bills will also be considered where the State Government has planned to increase its revenue by a slew of tax amendments like VAT Amendment, Kerala Land Tax Amendment, Plantation Tax Amendment, Kerala Taxation Law Amendment, Toll Amendment, Kerala Stamp Amendment and Kerala Motor Vehicles Tax Amendment etc.