Budgetary demands of all the departments were guillotined and passed without debate in the Assembly on the penultimate day of its budget session on Wednesday amid shouting of pro-Telangana slogans near the podium by Opposition members.
Mob podium
Members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the BJP mobbed the podium right from the start of the day's session, stalling the proceedings in support of their demand for adoption of a resolution for formation of Telangana State, instead.
Adjourned twice
Speaker N. Manohar adjourned the House twice to resolve the impasse but the trouble persisted as the members refused to resume their seats even after the break.
Merged
On the proposal of Legislative Affairs Minister D. Sridhar Babu, the Speaker facilitated the passage of all the demands merged into 40 major heads such as welfare, irrigation, energy, health and education by voice vote. Amid the din, he read out the budgetary demands before adjourning the House for the day.
A Bill amending the Excise Act was also passed making the AP Beverages Corporation an agency of the government to enable it to get income tax exemption on the ground that its revenues out of liquor sales were being remitted to the government and it was drawing salaries for its staff through the Treasury. Excise Minister M. Venkataramana Rao said the IT Department had sent a demand notice for Rs. 3,000 crore since 1993.
Last day today
The Assembly will have its last day's sitting of its budget session on Thursday when it will pass two Appropriation Bills to facilitate drawal of funds by the government from the Consolidated Fund of the State from April 1 in tune with the projections made in the 2012-13 budget.
