The first day of the budget session of the AP Assembly was adjourned without transacting any business on Monday after YSR Congress members stalled the proceedings demanding a debate on the law and order situation in the new State in the wake of killings of 11 party workers in the last three months.
Within 60 seconds of the national anthem marking the start of the session, YSRC member G. Srikanth Reddy moved an adjournment motion on the law and order situation but Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao promptly rejected it, asking the party members to bring it up in another form and wanted to take up question hour.
For 30 minutes, YSRC members shouted slogans and stormed the well of the House, saying: ‘We want justice,’ while Telugu Desam Party members shouted: ‘We want question hour,’ even as Dr. Rao kept repeatedly asking Opposition members to refrain from raising slogans and resume their seats. He then adjourned the House for 15 minutes.
The second time the House resumed, the scene was the same with YSRC members getting into the well of the House, shouting slogans, while the Speaker said once a motion was rejected, there could be no discussion on it. But YSRC MLAs, including former actor Roja, G. Srikanth Reddy and B. Nagi Reddy and others, kept raising slogans.
TDP hits backTDP member K. Atchan Naidu said it was sad to see those who ‘actually encouraged violence were demanding a discussion on law and order’ and charged them with the ulterior motive of stalling the proceedings. Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishnamurthy recalled that earlier at the Business Advisory Committee meeting, Leader of the Opposition Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy had sought discussion on 20 points, while agreeing to question hour between 9 a.m. and 12 noon.
After Dr. Rao asked Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy to just make a mention, the latter got up to allege that 11 of his party workers were brutally murdered in the past three months. He pointed out that adjournment motions were sought only for important issues. TDP members started raising slogans and it led to a free-for-all again, with the treasury and Opposition benches raising slogans again.
When the House resumed a third time, the situation was no better and as the sloganeering continued, the Speaker announced at 11.20 a.m., that all questions were postponed. He said all agenda papers were deemed to have been laid and adjourned the House till Tuesday.
