Hyderabad: The reply by the Telangana State Legislature to an RTI query that they have not received any resignation letter from Sanatnagar MLA and commercial taxes minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav has raised a storm.
Armed with this, the Congress on Sunday demanded the ouster of Mr Talasani from the Cabinet who according to them had cheated everyone including the Governor, who had administered the oath and office of secrecy.
Former Congress government chief whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy had sought a copy of the resignation letter purportedly submitted by the minister before joining the Cabinet on December 16 from the Telangana Legislature Secretariat duly applying under Right to Information Act. The Legislature represented by deputy secretary Dr V. Narasimha Charyulu in reply to the RTI query had informed ‘this Secretariat is not in receipt of any resignation letter from Talasani Srinivasa Yadav, M.L.A’.
Speaker yet to forward letter
However when contacted, a senior official of the Assembly said, “Normally and constitutionally the resignation letters need to be addressed and submitted to the Speaker. The Legislature Secretariat will come into the picture once the Speaker accepts the resignation and forwards the same to the Legislature Secretariat for publishing a notification. Till such time we do not have any information about resignations of any member.” This means the resignation letter by Mr Talasani is still under ‘consideration of the Speaker’ for over six months now.
Congress wants him to be sacked
Former government chief whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy who filed the RTI, on Sunday demanded that the Governor immediately sack Mr Talasani from the Cabinet as he has cheated all including the Governor by make them believe that he has resigned his membership of the Assembly.
“We have been meeting the Speaker Madhusudana Chary and pressing for acceptance of the resignation by Mr Talasani all these days, but he did not act. I have applied under RTI to get a copy of the resignation letter to which the Legislature Secretariat clearly said they did not receive any such letter. This is a clear cut case of cheating,” Mr Gandra said. He said Congress leaders will meet the Governor to seek dismissal of the minister.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the Council Shabbir Ali demanded that a cheating case should be booked against Mr Talasani for lying about his resignation as TDP MLA before taking oath as a minister.
Addressing the media here on Sunday, Mr Shabbir Ali pointed out that Mr Talasani displayed the resignation letter which was promptly covered by the entire media. “It was all a drama. He did not send any resignation letter and he misled and cheated everyone. This is an open case of cheating where Mr Talasani lied to become a minister. Besides registering a cheating case under Section 420, Mr Talasani should be immediately disqualified and debarred from being a member of the House,” he demanded.
The Leader of the Opposition also blamed the Governor for blatantly violating Constit-utional norms in appo-inting Mr Talasani as a minister. “Being the Constitutional head of the state, the Governor should have protected the Constitution. When a simple RTI application can reveal the status of Mr Talasani’s resignation letter, why did the Governor fail to check the position with authorities concerned? He too was in receipt of several representations against Mr Talasani and did not act on any of them,” Mr Shabbir Ali said.
