The budget session of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature began on Wednesday amidst protests, sloganeering and throwing of paper missiles by Opposition members at Governor E. S. L. Naraismhan as he read out his customary address on the opening day.
Members of the Telugu Desam, the CPI and the CPI (M) joined their Telangana Rashtra Samithi counterparts in tearing copies of the speech and agenda papers. They staged a walkout midway, blaming the Government for “doing nothing” to solve the problems faced by the people, mainly due to the stiff power cuts.
Y. S. Vijayalakshmi, president, YSR Congress, remained glued to her seat throughout the din flanked by some of her party members, while few others from her party stood up resenting Government’s failures on several fronts.
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Aggressive TRS members, T.Harish Rao and E. Ravinder Reddy said the Governor’s address contained no mention about the Telangana issue.
The Governor, who began and ended his speech in Telugu completed the exercise in 30 minutes, cheered by Congress members. He presented a progress report of the performance of the Kiran Kumar Reddy Government, describing it as that one that made things happen in the State, citing legislative backing given to SC/ST sub-plans.
But, much of what he spoke could not be heard amid the slogan-shouting by Opposition members. Earlier, the Governor was accorded a red-carpet welcome and was received by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Speaker N. Manohar and Legislative Council Chairman A. Chakrapani.
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Finance Minister A. Ramanarayan Reddy will present the budget on March 18.