Ethics Panel Probing If MLAs Paid Without Attending Assembly
Urges YSRC MLAs to attend February assembly, warns of disqualification
Visakhapatnam: Assembly Deputy Speaker Raghurama Krishnam Raju has said assembly sessions are likely in February. He urged the YSRC party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and the party’s MLAs to ensure their participation.
Raghurama Raju took part in several programmes here and addressed the media on Sunday.
He said the Ethics Committee was seized of the issue of “legislators drawing salaries even when they do not attend the assembly.”
MLAs, he said, face disqualification if they fail to attend the assembly for 60 days at a stretch.
The deputy speaker dismissed claims made by YSRCP leaders that the “atmosphere in the legislative council differs from that of the assembly.” Those holding constitutional positions, he said, are not required to resign from their political parties.
He criticised those who misinterpreted the provisions of the 10th Schedule. With a touch of sarcasm, he suggested that such comments often came from individuals who failed to “understand the law or even the language in which it is written.”
The deputy speaker revealed that letters containing critical remarks against him had been sent to the President and the Governor. They forwarded them to the state government for review, he said.
Raju said although he practised self-restraint by not attending TDP meetings, no rule prevented him from doing so. He said, “YSRC should recognise this distinction.”
Responding to the deputy speaker’s remarks, YSRC senior leader and opposition leader in the legislative council, Botsa Satyanarayana, said Raju’s desire to have all 175 members attending the assembly was reasonable. However, “Our party has already explained its reasons for preferring our presence in the legislative council, rather than in the assembly.”
YSRC members would attend the assembly only if the rules were correctly followed by the chair, he stressed.
