Seemandhra TDP seeks 30 more days for debate

TDP senior leader and Nagari MLA Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu along with party MLAs during the Assembly Session in Hyderabad. Photo: Nagara Gopal

TDP MLAs from Seemandhra on Friday wanted the Assembly to adopt a resolution requesting the President to give another 30 days time to debate the A.P. Reorganisation Bill, 2013.

Intervening in the debate after Minister V. Sunitha Laxma Reddy spoke, TDP member G. Muddu Krishnama Naidu noted that the President had given 10 days extension to the debate in response to the request of the State Government to give time till February 20, after Union Home Minister S. K. Shinde called on him. Never in the past directions were issued from the President’s office on such important Bills emphasising “the need for expeditious introduction of the Bill in Parliament”, he said.

“Let every member speak on the bifurcation issue without any time constraints and that would be possible only if another 30 days extension was given,” he said. By giving only a week’s the President was not only violating the rights of the Legislature but was belittling the institution, he said.

Galla blames States

A vertical division between the Seemandhra and Telangana MLAs was on display during the ongoing debate on the A.P. Reorganisation Bill, 2013, in the Assembly on Friday as Minister for Mines and Geology G. Aruna Kumari led those opposing the Bill, charging the neighbouring States for division of Andhra Pradesh.

“Our neighbouring States are responsible for our division when we are emerging as the national leaders in many fields with the fear that we will call the shots at national-level as a major political and economic force”, the Minister said speaking on the Bill. She termed the Bill a “historical blunder” as it was against the federal spirit and the Constitution.

Stating that it was sent to the Assembly against the wishes of majority people in the State, the Minister pointed out that there was no mention of how the concerns of Rayalaseema would be addressed.

She took exception to the remarks of Telangana leaders stating that why people from Seemandhra could not live in Hyderabad peacefully even after division as many Gujaratis and Rajasthanis were settled here for centuries. Seemandhra people were not those traders who migrated here only for business but they had come here thinking it as their own land.

“They are all worried about their future in Hyderabad now”, she said.