Farm laws: Kerala Assembly session likely to be held on Dec 31

Decks appearto have been cleared for the one-day session of the Kerala assembly on December 31 to discuss and pass a resolution against the three contentious farm laws of the Centre against which farmers are protesting in Delhi.

Raj Bhavan sources said the clarification sought by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has been given by the government and Khan could give his assent for the session by Monday.

The governor had earlier turned down the plea of the LDF government to convene a special session on December 23 to discuss the new laws, saying Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had not addressed the question raised by him on the nature of emergency warranating the very brief session.

In a letter to Vijayan, he had also stated that the government wanted the special session to "discuss a problem for which you have no jurisdiction to offer any solution".

Vijayan had shot off a letter to Khan on Tuesday describing as regrettable his decision while asserting that the governor was bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers and that moving resolutions and conducting discussions in the assembly "cannot be regulated by gubernatorial powers".

Kerala Law Minister A K Balan and Agricultural Minister V S Sunil Kumar had met the governor on Friday after the state government decided afresh to convene a one-day session to discuss and pass a resolution against the farm laws.

They had later said the interactionwas "positive".

Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan met the governor at Raj Bhavan on Saturday to invite him for the customary policy address for the budget session beginning on January 8.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the governor and the speaker also discussed the December 31 session recommendation of the state cabinet to which Khan assured that an "appropriate decision" would be taken, assembly sources said.