The 16th Lok Sabha witnessed its first disruption — albeit a short one — by members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on its fourth day on Monday when Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Santosh Gangwar tabled the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014, promulgated on May 29.
The ordinance relates to the transfer of seven mandals of the Bhadrachalam revenue division, encompassing 205 villages and tribal hamlets, to Andhra Pradesh for execution of the Polavaram project.
Telangana, Odisha and Chhattisgarh are opposed to the transfer as they feel that it would displace tribal people and adversely impact their power projects.
While BJD member B. Mahtab sought to raise a point of order, the TRS members briefly trooped into the well shouting slogans. Some of them held placards, drawing the disapproval of Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
The Speaker tried to pacify them with the assurance that they would be allowed to have their say when the Bill replacing the ordinance comes up for discussion. However, the TRS members persisted with their protest.
As not much business was scheduled for the day, proceedings were adjourned after the papers listed for the day were tabled followed by the announcement of the 10 members nominated by the Speaker to the panel of chairpersons.
On Sunday, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had said the P.M. had assured him that the Centre would not act in haste on the transfer of villages.
The Polavaram Ordinance was one of the first actions of the Narendra Modi government as it wanted the issue to be addressed before the Telangana came into existence on June 2. The government had to take the ordinance route as the proposed transfer was not part of the AP Reorganisation Bill approved by Parliament.
Mr. Rao had said he wanted the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of the four Chief Ministers in a bid to hammer out a consensus.
