The winter session of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly began on a stormy note on Friday with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti members staging a prolonged dharna near the Speaker's podium demanding withdrawal of cases booked against students who took part in the agitation for separate State.
The proceedings went haywire when the House met after three adjournments with the Majlis-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) members too mobbing the podium seeking withdrawal of cases filed against Muslim students in connection with the Mecca Masjid bomb blast, even as the Telugu Desam members also trooped into the well. Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar had to adjourn the House for the day.
Leader of the Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu, K. Chiranjeevi (Praja Rajyam), G. Mallesh (CPI), M. Ranga Reddy (CPI-M) and G. Kishan Reddy (BJP) extended vocal support to TRS while N. Jayaprakash Narayan of Lok Satta expressed the view, amidst protests by TRS members and desk-thumping by treasury benches, that the government should give out a strong message that it would not tolerate people taking law into their hands. Till late on Friday night, the TRS MLAs stayed put inside the House.
Trouble broke out as soon as the House met to take up the day's business when TDP members came in with sheaves of “damaged” crops to highlight the woes of the farmers in the rain-hit districts and their TRS colleagues wearing T- shirts arrived with slogan-filled placards.
Intervening, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy declared that his government had no intention to harm students but contended that it would not be able to scrap some cases as the courts to which they were committed already, might “reject” its decision. The government would indicate its stand on Monday on the cases booked in connection with Mecca Masjid bomb blast while replying to a query posted for the day.
State Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy said if the government withdrew the cases filed during the period from December 9 when Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram promised withdrawal of the cases, up to February 3 when the Srikrishna Committee was formed, some cases booked later would be left out. So, the government was examining entire gamut of the issue.
Vain bid
The Deputy Speaker made vain bid to take up the debate on farmers' problems as the question-hour was cancelled in accordance with the decision taken by the Business Advisory Committee meeting. MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said 150 out of the 420 Muslims who were “implicated” in cases in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast, were students who spent Rs. 42 lakh to get bail.
