Thiruvananthapuram, June 6 (IANS): With the Kerala assembly witnessing its lowest ever sittings last year, Speaker G. Karthikeyan Friday expressed hope that the next session, starting Monday, would have more sittings as all parties agreed to cooperate.
In 2013, the state assembly met for only 37 days, the lowest ever. The highest was recorded in 1960, when 94 days of sittings were held.
"The new session begins Monday and will end July 17. This time there would be 28 days of sittings," Karthikeyan told reporters here.
"At an all-party meeting held June 4, all the party leaders have promised to cooperate and have realised that the number of sittings has to go up. We all expect to see that this time it happens," said Karthikeyan.
He said Leader of Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan would initiate a discussion on the Supreme Court's May 7 verdict on the Mullaperiyar dam which allowed Tamil Nadu to increase water level from 136 feet to 142 feet.
The new session will also see the strength of the state government go up by two as two MLAs from the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), an ally of the Left Front for the past three decades, moved to the Congress-led United Democratic Front just before the Lok Sabha polls.
"The RSP, led by A.A. Azeez, has given a letter and they will now be seated on the treasury benches," said Karthikeyan.
With this, the Oommen Chandy government will have support of 75 MLAs in the 140-member assembly.