K Chandrashekar Rao gifts ally MIM PAC chairman posts

Hyderabad: With the Congress losing the status of the main Opposition party in the Telangana Legislative Assembly, the MIM has got the opportunity of holding the post of the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for the first time in its history.

Speaker Pocharam Sri-nivas Reddy on Sunday announced in the House that the MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi has been appointed as the chairman of Committee.

The Congress had lost its main opposition status after 12 MLAs of the party merged with the TRS Legislature Party by the Speaker following from a request from them, The Congress had won 19 seats and the current strength of the Congress is six after TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy resigned from the Huzurnagar segment after his election to Lok Sabha.

The Speaker appointed the MIM floor leader as the chairman of the PAC in view of its strength in the House with 7 MLAs.

Similarly, the Speaker has announced the TRS party senior MLA S. Ramalingareddy as the chairman of the Assem-bly Estimation Commi-ttee, and TRS legislator A. Jeevan Reddy was elected as the chairman of the Assembly undertaking committee.

Meanwhile, the Telang-ana Legislative Assembly as well as the Legislative Council were adjourned sine die on Sunday post the budget session.

Giving out details of the business transacted during the session, Legis-lative Affairs Minister V. Prashanth Reddy said the budget session of the Legislative Assembly went on for 10 days while the Legislative Council sat for five days. The Assembly approved the Budget and also passed three bills during the just-concluded session.

He recounted that while the assembly session lasted for a total 59 hours, the council went on for 17 hours. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and ministers spoke in the Assembly for 27 hours, with the CM himself accounting for six hours.

Prashanth Reddy stated that while the TRS members spoke for 19 hours, Congress MLAs did so for seven hours.