Hyderabad: A composed Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, with no aggression and avoiding the use of cuss words against his arch-political rival, landed several punches during the crucial debate on the legislation replacing the Dharani portal of the land management system with “Bhu Bharati”.
The strategic move of the treasury benches also singled out the Bharata Rashtra Samithi among the opposition; the others attacked the principal opposition for stifling their voice by attempting to stall the House.
Speaker G. Prasad Rao’s decision not to suspend BRS members who were creating a ruckus also caught the latter off-guard. After an hour or so of sloganeering, the exhausted BRS legislators left the House.
The “behaviour” of the BRS legislators, including former minister T. Harish Rao, drew the ire of AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi and the CPI’s lone member K. Sambasiva Rao. Showing the torn papers flung into the air by the BRS members, Owaisi quipped; “This reflects the 10 years of kachra (rubbish) governance by their party.” The CPI MLA accused the BRS of stalling the debate on Bhu Bharati, fearing that their misdeeds under the garb of Dharani would be exposed.
The Chief Minister in his one-hour reply to the debate on Bhu Bharati unravelled the maze of Dharani ownership that eventually landed the portal containing the state’s land data with companies based in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands and Caymen Islands through companies in the Philippines and Singapore.
Though he restrained himself from speaking in detail on the Formula E racing scam, as it was sub-judice, Revanth Reddy said the Formula E Operations had come up with a proposal to him to continue the “fraudulent” deal it had entered into with the K. Chandrashekar Rao dispensation. “Had I agreed, the state would have lost Rs 600 crore,” Revanth Reddy pointed out.
Earlier, the BRS created a ruckus in the House, seeking a discussion on the FIR filed against party working president K.T. Rama Rao. The members continued to raise the demand despite the Speaker saying that there was no chance for a discussion after the Governor had given sanction and the ACB had filed the case.
Harish Rao, who also demanded a debate on the Formula E case, at one stage tried to repeat the display of aggression he had displayed in 2013 when he had run on the treasury benches when the combined AP’s Assembly took up the state bifurcation Bill.
As soon as revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy rose to initiate the debate on Bhu Bharati, BRS members trooped into the well of the House. When Harish Rao tried to reach the podium through the treasury benches, after he was prevented from doing so from the opposition benches, he was stopped by Congress MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy who pushed him back.
After two adjournments, the House was reconvened in the afternoon but the BRS members’ protest lost vigour and they finally walked out on their own.
