All-woman chairpersons panel for first time in Kerala Assembly history
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): For the first time in the history of the Kerala Legislative Assembly an all-woman panel of chairpersons would chair the House proceedings in the absence of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
The historic decision was taken after Speaker A N Shamseer, who replaced M B Rajesh in the post, proposed to have an all-woman chairpersons panel and subsequently, two names were suggested by the ruling Left and one by the opposition UDF.
The three-member panel now comprises Asha C K from CPI, U Prathibha from CPI(M) and K K Rema of the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India, an UDF ally.
Normally, the panel includes at most one woman member.
Out of a total of 515 members who have appeared on the panel from the first Kerala Legislative Assembly to the current seventh session of the 15th one, only 32 women have been part of it.
Rema's name was suggested by the UDF despite the presence of Congress MLA Uma Thomas in the House.
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Two more Ayyappa devotees succumb to burns suffered in Habballi gas cylinder explosion
Hubballi (Karnataka), Dec 27: Two more Ayyappa devotees on Friday succumbed to their burns suffered in a gas cylinder explosion in Habbali district earlier this week, taking the total death toll of the incident to four, police said.
Nine devotees of Lord Ayyappa were staying in a room when an LPG cylinder caught fire, injuring them badly at Achchhavana Colony in Sainagar, Hubballi, on Monday.
Among them, two victims succumbed to their burn injuries on Thursday morning following which Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased.
"Two more victims died today. The deceased have been identified as Lingaraja Biranoora(19) and Raju Krishna Mugeri(16). One of them succumbed to injuries this morning, while the other died this evening. Out of the remaining five devotees who are undergoing treatment at the hospital, four are stated to be critical," a senior police office said.
