A fact finding committee headed by Deputy Speaker Mandali Buddha Prasad recommended action against two YSR Congress MLAs R.K. Roja and Kodali Nani as their behaviour in Andhra Pradesh Assembly had the potential to bring disrepute to the legislature.
The committee was set up to go into the behaviour of the legislators in the Assembly on December 22 last year, the day when the House witnessed acrimonious debate between the ruling Telugu Desam Party and the main Opposition YSR Congress Party members. The proceedings of the day culminated in the House passing a resolution suspending Roja from the service of the House for one year for using abusive language against Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The ruling party subsequently constituted a committee headed by Mr. Buddha Prasad and comprising T. Sravan Kumar of the TDP, Vishnu Kumar Raju (BJP) and G. Srikanth Reddy (YSRCP) as members to go through the proceedings and submit its report for further action. The committee which concluded its deliberations on Friday had reportedly recommended that appropriate action be initiated against Ms. Roja and another YSRC MLA Kodali Srivenkateswara Rao alias Nani.
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The behaviour of two other YSRC MLAs, party’s deputy floor leader Jyothula Nehru and K. Sridhar Reddy during the debate is also learnt to have figured in the deliberations. The report would be submitted to the Ethics and Privileges committees of the legislature for further action. Mr. Sravan Kumar wanted the suspension of Ms. Roja to be extended for the rest of the tenure as her behaviour and language had lowered the prestige of the House.
Mr. Srikanth Reddy, however, said that the main Opposition had submitted a dissent note to the panel chairman as the proceedings were aimed at targeting select members of the YSRC. The panel did not concede the request of the YSR Congress to lodge a complaint relating to the leakage of the House proceedings to social media while the ruling party members are alleged to have leaked select videos to malign the image of the main Opposition.
The panel’s report did not make mention of the names of TDP MLAs including Minister K. Atchan Naidu, Chief Whip K. Srinivasulu and MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao who made abusive and provocative comments against the YSRC members as well as the Opposition leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
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“The Speaker himself was not acting properly in that he had allowed the Treasury Benches to speak at a time when the pandemonium was prevailing in the House,” he said.