Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 28: Unable to withstand a week-long agitation by the Marxist-led opposition on the floor of the house over the Muthanga tribal issue, the Antony government in Kerala today adopted a motion, cutting short the sitting of the current session by eight days till March 13. According to the motion moved by Chief Minister A K Antony, who is also the leader of the house, the legislature would meet again only on March 14 for the presentation of the budget for 2003-04. As soon as Zero Hour began, the chief minister took the opposition by surprise and moved a motion seeking adjournment of the House till March 13. With the House adopting the motion by voice-vote cancelling eight days' sittings, the opposition lost the chance to discuss the controversial subjects such as Asian Development Bank loan and the global investor meet which were slated for March 10 and 11.
The government move to curtail the sitting came in the wake of the continuing agitation by the opposition demanding a judicial probe into the Muthanga incident in which one tribal and a policeman were killed during an operation to evict 1,000-odd tribals from the encroached reserved forest within the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary. After the house was adjourned, opposition members shouted slogans against the ruling party members who, they said, were ''running away from the House like cowards.''
Bureau Report