Walkouts go up in legislature
The 13th Assembly has already witnessed 127 walkouts
KOZHIKODE: The Kerala Assembly has become a House for disruptions and walkouts, rather than a hallowed hall for meaningful discussions. “This trend is alarming. No proper discussions are happening in the House.
In the first and second assemblies, the law-makers took even up to 30 days for discussing the Bills. At present, original Bills are very few and ordinances dominate the scene,” says Mr K. Mohana Kumar, special private secretary to the Speaker.
“Because of lack of discussions, judicial intervention by cancelling the laws is common these days,” he added. The last original Bill that came up for the discussion in the Assembly was the Kerala Police Bill, 2010.
As the 13th Kerala Assembly’s 12th and final session of the year started on Monday, a look at the statistics shows that the number of walkouts and obstructions of the Assembly has been increasing year by year.
Though there are many recommendations like automatic suspension for entering the well as in the Lok Sabha rules and non-payment on boycotting days, nothing has been done so far.
There is virtually no scope for in-depth discussions among the law-makers.
The 13th Assembly has already witnessed 127 walkouts. The MLAs came to the well 42 times and obstructed the proceedings. With nearly one-and-a-half years to go, the current Assembly may set the record for the most number of walkouts and obstructions in the six- decade history of the state Assembly.
Currently, the 12th Assembly tops the list with 128 walkouts and 38 obstructions. The trend of disrupting the Assembly started after 1970, according to the statistics.
It was during the third Assembly in 1970 that a member was suspended for the first time in its history. Till now, a total of 10 MLAs have been suspended for various reasons.