Tempers ran high in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly for the second day on Wednesday on the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project issue with the treasury benches and the YSR Congress (YSRC) members getting engaged in a war of words leading to the adjournment of the House for 75 minutes.
Continuing the debate under Rule 344, Leader of the Opposition Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, accused the State government of including tailor made requirements in the Pattiseema tender and allowing 21.91 per cent excess amount to be quoted on the price offered in violation of rules which permitted excess of only 5 per cent.
Only two companies responded to the tender which put the conditionality of completing the works in one year.
“How can the government allow 16.9 per cent excess as bonus when the tender did not mention it,” Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy asked and referred to the news published in a Telugu daily which he called as ‘your official gazette’. The discussion turned acrimonious with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members launching a tirade against the YSR government and Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy hitting back.
The YSR Congress members kept rushing into the well of the House several times drawing the ire of Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao.
“You can’t dictate the chair. Don’t take the House for a ride,” he remarked and asked Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy to see that his party MLAs maintained discipline.
The YSR Congress members tore papers and threw it in the well.
The Telugu Desam Party members objected to the intemperate language of Roja and her gestures while YSR Congress took exception to certain comments made by TDP MLA Bonda Umamaheswar Rao. There were bitter arguments between MLAs of the two parties with Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy offering to teach English to the treasury benches and the latter commenting on his poor school record.
Denying Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy’s charges, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said the amount in excess of Internal Bench Mark was subject to the condition that the project should be completed within one year.
If the condition was not fulfilled the contractor would have to forego the amount and this was mentioned in the tender document.
The government’s overriding concern was to ensure completion of the project on time and not to give largess to contractors as was done by Congress government.
‘A.P. had lost the case’
Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said Andhra Pradesh had lost the case in the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal as the then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, appointed a weak counsel when Karnataka and Maharashtra appointed legal luminaries such as Fali Nariman.
This was strongly rebutted by Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy leading to heated exchange.
