Puducherry Assembly session begins tomorrow

Puducherry: The first session of the 30-member Puducherry Assembly in 2018 will commence with the customary address of Lt Governor Kiran Bedi here tomorrow. An official source here today said the brief session, being the first in the current year, will begin with an address by the Lt Governor at 9.30 AM tomorrow.

Following Bedi’s address, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy will table the Vote on Account Bill to get the nod of the House for allocation of funds to the Puducherry government to meet its expenditure during the first few months of the fiscal 2018-2019. A full-fledged budget will be presented either in April or May, the source said.

The House is likely to have the session for three days from tomorrow. The House will be meeting in the backdrop of the Madras High Court upholding the appointment of three BJP functionaries of Puducherry unit as nominated members of the House. These members were appointed as nominated members by the Union Home Ministry through its order issued on June 23 last year.

They were inducted as nominated members by Lt Governor at Raj Nivas here on July 4 last year triggering protests by the Congress and its ally, the DMK. Parliamentary Secretary to Chief Minister K Lakshminarayanan challenged the appointment through a public interest litigation petition in the Madras High court.

The court in its verdict pronounced on March 22 however upheld the appointment of the three members under the Union Territories Act 1963.