The Opposition Congress in the Telangana Legislative Assembly has alleged that the Government has introduced and passed two important bills — on civil courts and municipalities — when they were not in the House and it was not in the spirit of democracy.
However, the Treasury Benches denied the Opposition charge stating that the business was taken up as listed in advance and it was not the Government’s fault if the Congress members were not present during the introduction and passing of the bills. The issue was raised by Congress Legislature Party leader M. Bhatti Vikramarka and Congress MLA from Manthani D. Sridhar Babu during the discussion on demands for grants on Saturday.
The Congress members said it was unfair on part of the government to get the two important bills cleared in the House after knowing well that they were not in the House.
They stated that they went out of the House to address a press conference on the issue of ITIR project came up for discussion during the Question Hour. Further, they faulted the Chief Whip and other whips for not managing the conduct of the business properly.
Not informed
Minister for Legislative Affairs V. Prashanth Reddy said they (government) were not aware of Congress members holding press conference outside as they did not inform it to the whips.
The government had no intention to get the bills cleared without the Opposition, he declared.
When the matter of defection of 12 Congress legislators to TRS was raised by Mr. Sridhar Babu and Mr. Vikramarka, G. Venkataramana Reddy, one of the 12 legislators, said they had merged with Telangana Rashtra Samithi as per the constitutional provisions and other laws and there was nothing undemocratic about it.
He pointed out that six BSP legislators had merged with Congress in Rajasthan recently and similar instances were there in Goa, other States and also in the Rajya Sabha.
Speaker clarifies
When Mr. Sridhar Babu was reading out details of the 12 legislators stating that their merger was cleared when the petitions of Congress were pending before the Speaker. Intervening the matter, Speaker P. Srinivas Reddy said all petitions were disposed of after examining them properly and the issue was long over.
