TS budget session to be a stormy affair

Suicides by farmers, power crisis to dominate session

Arrangements made for the Assembly premises in view of the Telangana Assembly ahead of the Budget session beginning on Tuesday in Hyderabad. Photo: Nagara Gopal

The budget session of the Telangana Assembly commencing from Wednesday will be a stormy affair going by the mood of the Opposition parties, which are determined to corner the TRS government on various issues, particularly the farmers’ suicides and power crisis staring at the new State.

The continuing suicide by some farmers and the power crisis facing Telangana are likely to dominate the proceedings. To begin with, Finance Minister Eetala Rajender will present the maiden budget of the new State. The Congress, TDP, BJP and Left parties have already made known their intention to quiz the Treasury benches on these issues.

On weak wicket

The government was apparently on a weak wicket as about 330 farmers committed suicide due to crop failure and the power crisis has taken a heavy toll on agricultural needs. There were also problems of sharing river water with Andhra Pradesh, release of scholarships to students and weeding out of ration cards which could embarrass the government. The election promises of TRS, particularly housing, and the household survey had left loopholes that were not plugged. The Opposition had demanded an all-party meeting in a bid to find a solution to the problems but the government turned a deaf ear.

In a House of 120 members, the strength of the Opposition has already dwindled from 56 to 46 as the members switched loyalty to TRS. Some more members are likely to defect, sources said.

The 17 out of 21 members of the Congress, who are still with the party, and the TDP-BJP combine with marginal support from the two CPI and CPI (M) members are expected to offer resistance to the TRS juggernaut which has swelled from 63 to 73 after the elections.

Marginal role for MIM

The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) with seven members was expected to confine its role to taking up the cause of Muslims but the government was not found wanting in extension of welfare programmes for them.

Sources in TRS said the government will have its way in the Assembly proceedings as it will try to deal with disturbances with an iron hand. The TRS is expected to put up an argument that the Opposition had no legitimacy to raise the issues as most of these problems were due to the misrule in the past. The power and water woes were a result of accumulations over a long period of time.