The weekly cabinet meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, February 9 decided to hold the budget session of the Kerala Assembly from February 18 and the state budget for the fiscal 2022-23 will be presented by Finance Minister K N Balagopal on March 11. Since being the first session of the new year, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan will deliver his address on February 18.
On expected lines, the upcoming session in all likelihood is set to be an explosive one and the first person to encounter this would be none other than Khan, as the entire Congress opposition is upset at the manner in which he signed the tweaking of the Lokayukta ordinance on Monday, February 7.
A day after the Governor signed the Kerala Lokayukta amendment Ordinance, the CPI, the second biggest ally in the ruling Left government, on Tuesday slammed him for the way he is going about things. CPI assistant secretary Prakash Babu said the situation is such that none can predict how Khan behaves.
"I do not give much heed to what Khan says as he speaks this way and that way, does not seem to have a proper view of things and does it according to what he feels like. Just because he has inked this Ordinance, it doesn't mean it is right," said Babu.
Incidentally, both the Congress and the BJP had asked Khan not to ink the Ordinance as it would make the quasi-judicial body a toothless tiger with the amendments.
With Khan signing the ordinance on Monday, from now onwards, the Chief Minister can reject the findings of the Lokayukta in a corruption case against any minister and the Governor can reject if the case is against the Chief Minister.
The Congress charged that there is a tacit understanding between the CPI(M) and the BJP, and that Khan is the tool for it.
Another issue that is going to rock the house is the adamant stand of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the now controversial K-Rail SilverLine project, which has met opposition not just from the Congress-led UDF but from the civil society too, who want the proposed project to be scrapped and the most recent event of the revelation of gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh.