14th TN Assembly session gets underway

Chennai, May 23: The newly-elected members today (may 23) took the oath at the first session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly after the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK came to power at Fort St George.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was the first to be administered the oath by Pro-Tem speaker C K Thamizharasan, followed by members of her cabinet and others.

Former Chief Minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, whose party suffered a defeat, was not present as he flew to Delhi this morning to meet his daughter Kanimozhi, who is in the Tihar jail after being denied bail in the 2G Spectrum scam case.

The proceedings began with the House expressing its grief over the death of Minister for Environment, Pollution Control and Minorities Welfare, Mariam Pitchai, who was killed in a road accident early today near Tiruchirappalli.

The Assembly chamber has been spruced up following the AIADMK government's decision to hold the session at Fort St.George after shifting the Classical Tamil Library, whose setting up was overseen by Karunanidhi as Chief Minister.

The DMK government had held the last session in the new Assembly-Secretariat complex, a pet project of Karunanidhi, whose estimates have touched around Rs 1,000 crore.

Jayalalithaa, who had earlier criticised the lack of aesthetic appeal and the design of the new complex describing it as a "circus tent", had said ahead of the session that the decision to stick to the 17th century building was due to administrative considerations and denied any political bias.

The election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker is scheduled for May 27 and the Governor would address the Assembly on June 3.

PTI