Assembly fails to discuss Telangana Bill

Hyderabad: The state Legislative Assembly and Council were adjourned for the day without debating the AP Reorganisation Bill 2013 on Friday.

Both the Houses were convened after a gap of two weeks to debate on the Bill. The YSR Congress legislators and Telugu Desam members from Seemandhra rushed to the podium and stalled the proceedings.

Speaker Nadendla Manohar immediately adjourned the House for some time. Contrary to expectations, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti MLAs maintained utmost restraint and did not prevent the Seemandhra MLAs from stalling the proceedings.

Earlier, the TRS legislators pulled their counterparts from Seemandhra from the Well and tried to snatch the placards. On Friday, however, there was an unusual camaraderie among members.

The Chief Minister was seen inviting TRS floor leader Etela Rajender to his seat in the House and shared some light moments with the latter. BJP member and staunch Telangana supporter Nagam Janardhan Reddy also joined the duo.

With members still protesting after two short breaks, the Speaker adjourned the House for Saturday. Similar was the situation in the Council.

Meanwhile, the TRS legislators were furious with Seemandhra leaders, saying that they were attempting to stall the Telangana Bill. The TRS leaders asserted that the party would have no objection to any resolution after the completion of a discussion on the AP Reorganisation Bill.

“The Speaker and the Chief Minister should honour the Assembly and Constitutional rules. After discussing the Telangana Bill, we don’t have any problem for taking up of any resolution. It’s unfortunate that instead of taking up the Bill, the Sp-eaker took up Question Hour,” said Rajender.

He warned the Seemandhra MLAs of serious consequence if they continued to stall the Telangan Bill and disallowed discussion.

The TRS MLAs were also furious with minister J. Geetha Reddy. They felt that she should have demanded taking up Telangana Bill instead of Question Hour.