Thiruvananthapuram, Tuesday 23 February 2010: The budget session of the Kerala Assembly will begin on Wednesday.

Briefing presspersons about the calendar for the 14th session of the 12th Legislative Assembly, Speaker K. Radhakrishnan said the House would sit for 24 days between February 24 and March 31.

Since this is the first session of the calendar year 2010, the first day of the session will feature the Governor’s address to the Assembly. The discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address will be on March 1, 2 and 3. March 4 is allotted for government business.

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac will present the State budget for 2010-11 on March 5, along with the request for vote on account. General discussion on the budget will be held on March 8, 9 and 10. The next day has been allotted for discussion and voting on demands for grants for the final supplementary grant against the budget for 2009-10.

Speaker said the Governor had promulgated 11 ordinances after the previous session of the Assembly. Fifty-four Bills published in the gazette are awaiting the due process of legislation. The Business Advisory Committee of the House will decide the priority of the Bills to be presented during the session.

Three days will be devoted to unofficial members’ business and 10 days for government business during the session. Radhakrishnan said video recording of members’ discussions in the House was not part of Assembly proceedings as per rules and would not come under the Right to Information Act. This stand of the Assembly had been endorsed by the Kerala High Court.

“Only the documents printed and published by the Assembly form part of the Assembly proceedings. The video recordings are only a temporary arrangement,” he said.

However, the Assembly Privilege and Ethics Committee was meeting on February 24 to discuss the matter and would take a decision whether to give to the public the videocassettes of speeches made by members under the Right to Information Act.