The Telangana Legislative Assembly will take up Appropriation Bill on March 26 and the session could be extended by 2-3 days more, if necessary, as the government has expressed no reservations in doing so in case the Opposition parties seek more time for discussing people’s issues.
The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Assembly, which met here on Saturday under the Chairmanship of Speaker S. Madhusudana Chary also left the Opposition parties’ demand for commencing the day’s business from 9.30 a.m. instead of 10 a.m., so that more time is provided to the members for discussions and raising issues related to people, and having sittings on Sundays to the discretion of the Speaker.
It was, however, decided not to have a sitting on March 8, a Sunday, as decided earlier, respecting the Opposition parties’ sentiments and in view of the International Women’s Day celebrations. Government sources stated that the debate on thanks giving motion to the Governor’s address including the Chief Minister’s reply would be completed on March 9 and 10. There will be only one holiday after the presentation of budget on March 11.
The issue of adjournment motions was also left to the Speaker’s discretion as the Opposition parties insisted upon continuing the tradition of taking them before Question Hour.
The treasury benches opposed it stating that it was nowhere in practice in the country and business time would be wasted if it was scheduled at the beginning of the day’s sitting. Instead, it favoured the motions to be taken up before the tea-break. The decision on live telecast of the proceedings was also left to the Speaker.
The government, however, conceded to the Opposition demand for having more time for discussions by offering to have working lunch on 5-6 days during the session. Sources stated that the government is planning to push through a couple of bills during the session including the one meant for providing problem-free right-of-way for laying trunk water-carrying pipelines through private lands as part of Water Grid.
G. Chinna Reddy and M. Bhatti Vikramarka (Congress), E. Dayakar Rao (TDP), Akbaruddin Owaisi (MIM), K. Laxman (BJP), R. Ravindra Kumar (CPI), S. Rajaiah (CPI-M) and T. Harish Rao, K. Srihari, P. Srinivas Reddy and E. Rajender (TRS) attended the meeting.
