Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has ordered Assembly officials to immediately remove the life-size portraits of Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu and Potti Sreeramulu from the main Assembly Committee Hall No 1.
Prakasam Panthulu was the chief minister of the composite state of Madras as well as the first chief minister of the Andhra state in 1953. Potti Sreeramulu's martyrdom in 1952 had led to the announcement by Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru in Parliament of the formation of a separate Andhra state from the composite state of Madras.
Mr Rao has asked the officials to replace Prakasam Panthulu's portrait with one of Mahatma Gandhi’s.
The Chief Minister observed that since both the leaders had no connection with the affairs of Telangana, there was no need to keep their portraits in the main committee hall that has been allotted to Telangana.
“What was their contribution to Telangana? Nothing. They may be leaders for Andhra people but not to us; we cannot have their portraits in the hall even after we formed a separate state,” Mr Rao reportedly told the Assembly officials.
The Assembly Commi-ttee Hall No. 1, which is on the first floor of the Assembly buildings, houses important meetings of the legislators and committees including those chaired by the Chief Minister and the Speaker.
A senior official of the Telangana legislature to-ld this newspaper that when the issue of the portraits was brought to the notice of Mr Rao during his review meeting in view of the upcoming Budget Session, he ordered their removal.
“We will remove the portraits either today or tomorrow but will keep them in safe custody; if the AP Assembly wants them we will happily oblige,” a senior official said on Wednesday.
The two portraits, along with those of national leaders, had been put up when the new Assembly building had started operating in 1985.
