Telangana Assembly passes resolution on renaming new Parliament building

Hyderabad: The Telangana state Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed two resolutions urging the Centre to name the new Parliament building in New Delhi after Dr B.R. Ambedkar, and also withdraw the new Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 proposed by the Centre keeping in view the interests of farmers and poorer sections. 

The House also passed seven bills on the last day of the Monsoon Session on Tuesday. The session ended in just three days after Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy adjourned the House sine die.

Minister K.T. Rama Rao, who moved the first resolution, said it would be appropriate to name the newly-constructed Parliament building after Ambedkar, who is the architect of the Indian Constitution. He said if not for Article 3 incorporated by Ambedkar in the Constitution, Telangana state would never be a reality. 

“If today we are sitting in the Telangana Legislative Assembly, debating various issues and making legislations, the credit goes to Ambedkar entirely. Telangana state became a reality due to Article 3 incorporated by Ambedkar in the Constitution which gave power to Parliament to bifurcate a state irrespective of whether the respective state Assembly approves bifurcation or not. There is no Telangana state or Telangana Assembly if there is no Ambedkar or Article 3,” remarked Rama Rao. 

He said Telangana state government was implementing Ambedkar’s principles for welfare and development of all sections without any discrimination.

“Ambedkar gave the nation a direction and there is no better person to honour than having the new Parliament building named after him,” he added.

The Congress and the AIMIM supported the resolution while the lone BJP MLA M. Raghunandan Rao was not present in the House when the resolution was passed. Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka urged the state government to allow installation of the statue of Ambedkar at Punjagutta Junction. He said police shifted Ambedkar statue to police station when senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao and others tried to install at Punjagutta two years ago and it continues to lying in the police station.

Rama Rao informed the Assembly that the state government was only following the Supreme Court directions which barred installation of statues on roads and it has nothing against installation of Ambedkar statue.

Rao added that the state government is installing Ambedkar’s 125-foot-tall statue by January 2023 near Prasad’s Imax and urged Congress leaders not to insist on installing the statue at Punjagutta.

Energy minister G. Jagadish Reddy moved the resolution opposing the Electricity (Amendments) Bill 2022 and demanding that the Centre withdraw the Bill.  He said the Bill was against the interests of farmers, the poor, and the 20 lakh employees of the power sector across the country. The resolution was passed by the Assembly unanimously.

The House also passed seven bills which include the Telangana Goods and Service Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the University of Forestry Telangana Bill, 2022, the Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022 and the Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2022. While moving the Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Rama Rao said the state government resumed 1,234 acres from various industries which failed to set up operations or became non-functional after allotment of land from 2014 to 2020.