HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Assembly created history with a marathon session lasting an unprecedented 17 hours at a stretch to the predawn hour on Tuesday.
The session began at 10 am on Monday and was adjourned around 3.15 am the following day, making it the longest day of extended proceedings ever in the Legislative Assembly's history.
Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar was in the chair, with the majority of members from both sides in attendance. The MLAs rushed home for rest and sleep and he was back in the Assembly by 10 am on Tuesday to participate in the first stage of the proceedings on Tuesday.
Monday marked the first day of voting on the Demands for Grants for the fiscal year 2024-25. Officials in the Legislature Secretariat said such prolonged debates past midnight have been rare even in combined the Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh. They recalled that the longest session in the past never went beyond 2 am.
Marathon debates lasting 15 to 16 hours were occasionally seen in the combined state, particularly during N.T. Rama Rao's tenure as chief minister in the 1980s.
This time, the longest session had just one short tea break around 4.30 pm for 15 minutes. Working lunch and dinner were provided to the MLAs.
However, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was not present in the House when the Assembly was adjourned. He left around 9 pm to take part in an event at Ravindra Bharathi.
Those present in the Assembly till 3.15 am included Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, ministers D. Sridhar Babu, Damodar Rajanarasimha and Ponnam Prabhakar. From the main opposition BRS, former ministers T. Harish Rao, K.T. Rama Rao and G. Jagadish Reddy sat till the end.
Industries minister Sridhar Babu, who remained in the House till the last minute, returned and introduced the Young India Skills University (Public-Private Partnership) Bill, 2024.
Bhatti Vikramarka started giving reply to the debate at 12.40 am on Tuesday.
During the marathon session, Congress MLA Yennam Srinivas Reddy launched a blistering attack on the BRS rule, and alleged that it completely neglected the education sector in Telangana and focused attention only on liquor. He also expressed concern over opposition members completely ignoring the education sector during their debates and focussing only on power cuts etc.
"If electricity goes out for an hour or so, nothing significant will happen. But if education is neglected, it will jeopardise the future of students and the country. If students discontinue their education due to a lack of educational opportunities, especially the absence of schools and colleges in rural and remote areas, it will cause irreparable damage to students, the state, and the country," Srinivas Reddy said.
