Opposition parties requests Speaker to revoke the suspension of TD legislators
TD MLAs refused to oblige saying they will continue dharna night out till their demands were met. (Photo: PTI/File)
Hyderabad: Suspended Telangana Telugu Desam MLAs were taken away by marshals in the Assembly late in the night after the Session was over and bundled away to NTR Trust Bhavan party office by the police. They were protesting in Speaker Madhusudhana Chary’s chambers in the Assembly from the morning demanding sacking of commercial taxes minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav while continuing as “TD MLA”.
The MLAs sought disqualification of other MLAs who defected and release of proceedings of the House during the Governor’s address to the joint session, trouble in the House and suspension of TD MLAs. They questioned the rationale behind giving telecast rights of Assembly proceedings to a relative of minister T. Harish Rao.
Earlier, the TD MLAs squatted on the floor in the Speaker’s chambers from morning.
The Speaker told them firmly that they cannot dictate things to him and requested them to leave. The TD MLAs refused to oblige saying they will continue dharna night out till their demands were met. The TD wanted the Speaker to disqualify all defectors under the anti-defection law and questioned the Speaker’s decision to suspend all MLAs including Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and Machineni Kishan Red-dy though they were not present in the House when the trouble took place during the Governor’s address to joint session of legislature.
The party demanded the Speaker to release the entire proceedings of the Governor address to the session and trouble in the House instead of select clippings and also questioned the rationale in giving telecast rights to a close relative of Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao.
“We have presented the list of demands to Speaker. We are yet get a response. We will not budge from our stand till our demands are met. Though I was not present in the House when the incident took place, I and Machireddy Kishan Reddy too were suspended. Is it not high handed action,” Sandra Venkata Veeraiah asked.
Earlier, the Opposition Congress, BJP requested the Government to withdraw the suspension since only two days are left for end of the budget session but the Government remained unmoved.
The Speaker said the decision was pending since there is no consensus on the issue among all the parties.
“It will be misappropriation if the Appropriation Bill is passed without complete attendance,” BJP Floor leader Dr K Laxman told the Speaker. Legislative affairs minister T. Harish Rao said the government is not afraid of the TD’ protests.
“We are not scared of their dharna. We have seen how Andhra Pradesh Assembly was going on like a TD Legislature Party meeting,” Harish Rao said.
He further said, “We decided all parties will apologise but TD legislators didn’t apologise. The decision is only to respect the National Anthem.” Speaker Madhusudhan Chary said he “is on the job.” But Congress leaders also asked the Speaker to take a decision considering the session will close this week. “There is no consensus among all parties about revoking the suspensions. So the decision is pending. But you can’t dictate terms to the Chair.”
( Source : dc correspondent )
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