Hyderabad: The state government moved quickly into damage control mode after the Indian Science Congress at Osmania University was postponed indefinitely, and ministers and TRS leaders said it was because of non-confirmation from the Prime Minister’s Office. The congress was to have been held from January 3 to 7 and its postponement was announced on Thursday.
TRS leaders said they had not got confirmation of the appointment of the Prime Minister to inaugurate the congress due to the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, and not because of security issues on the OU campus. They said the government was ready to provide the required security and other arrangements to conduct the event smoothly and peacefully, whenever it was rescheduled.
Minister Jogu Ramanna said, “The state government has no role in this issue. We were never consulted. It is a matter between Osmania University and the Indian Science Congress Association. The government and OU had made all arrangements for the smooth conduct of the event but the ISCA has decided to postpone it for its own reasons.” The ISCA had not communicated any reason for the postponement, he added.
TRS whip in TS Legislative Council Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said, “Though ISCA has not communicated any reason for postponement to the government or OU, we understand that it was done due to the ongoing Parliament session. The Winter Session has been scheduled till January 5 due to which the PM’s appointment could not be confirmed which resulted in the postponement.”TRS leaders and government officials pointed out that ISC was traditionally the first public function the PM addressed in the calendar year and due to Parliament session till January 5, the organisers might have decided to postpone it.
The Winter Session of Parliament is usually held in Novem-ber/December. The session was postponed this year from December 15 to January 5. Mr Modi had inaugurated ISC at SV University in Tirupati, on January 3, 2016. The sudden postponement came as an embarrassment for the TS government and the OU administration as Opposition parties held them responsible and alleged that they had “failed to provide a congenial atmosphere to conduct the event”.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is learnt to have discussed the issue with IT minister K.T. Rama Rao and other senior leaders and told them that though the state government had no role in the issue, the government would make a formal request to ISCA to consider holding the event at OU during a meeting on December 27.
