A day after assembly, oppn targets speaker

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after the fiery debate on no-confidence motion in the assembly, opposition UDF alleged partisan attitude on part of the speaker who they said had failed to control the unusually long speech of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala sent a letter to speaker P Sreeramakrishnan on Tuesday alleging that several acts of the speaker didn’t befit the position he held.
“It is the duty of the speaker to facilitate the business of the assembly. But it is not his duty to arrange facilities for the CM to set a record. Though, you reminded me about the time when I completed 20 minutes of speech, you didn’t utter a word when the CM spoke for three hours and 45 minutes,” Chennithala said in his letter. “Only 50 minutes were allotted for reply speech. The ministers who spoke utilized that time. The CM went to speak for 225 minutes and there was no intervention from the speaker despite the opposition protest. We register our strong protest in the partisan and arbitrary actions,” he added.
The opposition leader also protested misrepresentation of facts by Sreeramakrishnan in the assembly. “You said Oommen Chandy spoke for five-and-a-half hours when no confidence motion was moved in 2005. It was a three-day debate during which 20 hours were allotted for debate. Five hours and 15 minutes was taken by 10 ministers to answer allegations against them. Chandy only spoke for one hour and 45 minutes and all these are part of assembly documents,” Chennithala said.
Reacting to opposition criticism, the speaker said there was nothing unusual in his act. “It is precedence not to intervene when the CM and opposition leader speak. The opposition leader spoke for thrice the time allotted. The discussion alone took one-and-a-half hours more than allotted time,” he said.