Ruling, Opposition Members Fight over Budget Allocations for Welfare Schemes

Vijayawada: The Legislative Council witnessed pandemonium on Thursday with the ruling party and opposition members trading charges against each other on several issues.

Council chairman Koyye Moshenu Raju rejected the adjournment motion from the opposition YSR Congress members seeking discussion on the arrest of some social media activists for posting “derogatory” remarks on social media platforms. YSRC members trooped into the well and even climbed up the podium, raising slogans like ‘We Want Justice’ and ‘Save Democracy.’

The chairman repeatedly asked the members to calm down and return to their seats. He advised opposition leader Botsa Satyanarayana to get his members back to their seats. “They may raise the matter in a different format for a discussion of the issues,” Raju proposed.

Three MLCs -- Pothula Suneetha, Kalyana Chakravarthi and Karri Padma Sree --wanted the council chairman to accept the resignations they submitted to him a few months ago.

The council was adjourned by the chair following the uproarious scenes. Once the council resumed the session, the chairman called for a general discussion on the state budget.

The opposition members, one after another, targeted the ruling TD-led NDA government, saying it did not make adequate provisions in the budget to fulfil the ‘Super Six’ poll promises. A huge amount of `76,000 crore was required per annum to fulfil the poll promises, but the budget made only “meagre” allocation of funds, they alleged.

There was a heated discussion on the debt raised by the previous TD and YSR Congress governments, since 2014. If it was `3.31 lakh crore in 2019, it went up to `6.46 crore in 2024, the members said.

MLC Yanamala Ramakrishnudu cited the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, and said there were some critical remarks in it on raising loans and the use of such funds. He claimed that the present government was struggling to clear the debts raised by the YSRC government.

YSRC MLCs targeted the ruling party, referring to the claims of chief minister Chandrababu Naidu vis-a-vis his plans for “creation of wealth” and the announcement of three domestic gas refills, free travel to women in RTC buses etc. They wondered how they could be implemented with meagre allocations in the budget.

With members from both the ruling and the opposition sides continuing their verbal fights, the chairman had a tough time restoring order.

A war of words erupted between finance minister Payyavula Keshav and Opposition leader Botsa Satyanarayana, over the rules that allow the members to speak in the council.

In the meele, a ruling party member commented that YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy ‘ran away’ from his responsibility of attending the assembly sessions. The opposition members retorted that Chandrababu Naidu too avoided attending the council.

Education minister N Lokesh intervened to say that his mother was humiliated in the legislature in the past, which had made his father, Chandrababu Naidu, to take an oath not to attend the assembly until he was re-elected as CM. The YSR Congress leaders also humiliated Sharmila Reddy and Vijayamma, he said.

Lokesh noted that the YSRC had even given a poll ticket to the one who humiliated his mother but he lost the elections.

In a reply, opposition leader Botsa Satyanarayana said the YSRC would not support people who humiliated women.

Home minister Vangalapudi Anitha raised her voice, strongly protesting against the opposition members’ actions and claimed that the present government was implementing the poll promises one-by-one. “We are also clearing the debt left behind by the YSRC government.”