Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has given his assent for convening a special session of the Assembly on 31 December. The session will discuss the contentious farm laws passed recently by the Union government, and pass a resolution against it. Raj Bhavan sources had earlier said that the governor was provided with the clarification he sought of the state government and he was likely to give his nod on Monday, 28 December.
Earlier, Governor Arif had turned down the request to hold a special Assembly session on the farm laws, by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala. It was to be held on 23 December but the governor rejected the request, saying that a question raised by him on the nature of emergency that demanded the session was not answered by the government.
In a letter he wrote to the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, the governor stated that the state government was asking for a session to discuss a problem for which they had no jurisdiction to offer a solution.
CM Pinarayi too wrote to the governor, calling his decision regrettable. He said in the letter that the governor was bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers and moving resolutions or holding discussions in the Assembly "cannot be regulated by gubernatorial powers."
On Friday, two Kerala ministers – AK Balan and VS Sunil Kumar – met the governor to convince him of the need to hold the session. The state government had by then decided to convene the session on 31 December.
Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan also met the governor on Saturday. While inviting the governor for the customary policy address for the Budget session that begins on 8 January, the Speaker also discussed the Assembly session scheduled for 31 December.
Earlier in December, Kerala's Agriculture Minister VS Sunil Kumar said that Kerala will not implement the farm laws and will approach the Supreme Court against it.
(This story was first published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)
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