Stalin urges Governor to direct CM, Speaker to convene Assembly

Taking serious exception to the government recommending the former to prorogue the session, “in violation of the rules of procedure of TN Legislative Assembly,” Stalin, in his letter to the Governor, copy of which was circulated to the media, said the GO issued to that effect on May 15 violates the “decision of the House, based on the recommendations of the Business Advisory Committee and it also infringes upon the sanctity of the annual financial statement presented to the House.” 

Referring to the failure of the Speaker to reconvene the House for voting on the grants of the departments despite his repeated representations to him and the Chief Minister, Stalin elaborated the stringent provisions of rules 183 (1), 185 (3), 235 and 237 of TN Legislative Assembly, which mandate the voting on the grants by the House and legality of the decision of the Business advisory committee. He further said, “Now that the session stands prorogued, demands for grants presented by various ministries do not have Legislative sanction and hence the government cannot appropriate funds for various schemes and projects.” 

Seeking to know whether the ruling party has not understood the rules or intends to belittle the supremacy of the state Legislative Assembly, the Leader of Opposition said, “The general budget presented was hanging in the air without the voting on the grants of the departments by the House. Thus, the administration is rendered void.” 

Stalin asked the Governor to direct the Chief Minister and Speaker to immediately summon the Assembly to discuss and approve the demands for grants of various departments, “to avert a bizarre situation in which the government money is utilised for the schemes announced in the budget without the approval of the House which is the sole authority to assent to the grants and to approve the appropriation Bills.” 

Congress legislature party leader KR Ramasamy too said that he had never seen such a bad precedence being set in his six tenures as MLA and the ruling AIADMK was murdering democratic norms by such unilateral actions.