In an unprecedented move, the State government has offered to hold a session of the Legislature, starting Friday, for 50 days to enable a threadbare debate on all the issues raised by the Opposition.
The offer was made by none other than Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at the Business Advisory Committee meeting of the Assembly on Thursday, leaving the opposition perplexed. The BAC meeting remained inconclusive as the members decided to meet again on Friday to finalise the agenda and the number of days the House would be in session.
The BAC meeting was chaired by Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy as the Speaker S. Madhusudanachary was indisposed. The Chief Minister called on Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan ahead of the BAC meeting to inform him about the conduct of the Legislature session and the Bills that were likely to be passed. The meeting, according to the ruling and opposition members, went off smoothly as the ruling party had come forward to allow debates on all the issues listed by the Opposition. Debate on implementation of the loan waiver scheme, alleged irregularities in irrigation projects including Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya, progress of double bedroom housing scheme, 12 per cent reservation to Muslims and support price for agricultural products were some of the issues on which the opposition parties sought detailed debates for which the ruling party had conveyed its readiness.
The Chief Minister wanted the Treasury and Opposition benches to prioritise items that should be discussed during their meeting on Friday so that each of these issues could be taken up. He wanted no clash during debates in the Assembly and Council. The meeting resolved to increase the duration of Question Hour by 30 minutes so that at least ten questions submitted by the members were answered every day. Members would be allowed to ask supplementaries during the first 45 minutes and the questions during the remaining time would be restricted to single supplementaries.
The ruling party insisted on the conduct of the Zero Hour, allowing members to raise the issues of their respective constituencies and after this members would be given time to submit petitions. This would be followed by short notice questions and short discussions.
The Opposition’s demand for allowing adjournment motions during the beginning of the proceedings was, however, rejected and the ruling party claimed that the members could instead raise those issues after completion of Question Hour, Zero Hour and petitions. The Treasury Benches had assured that replies for the issues raised by the members would be given at the earliest. The ruling party, according to sources, sought the session to be adjourned for five days from November 27, a day ahead of the commencement of the Global Entrepreneurs Summit to December 1 when the delegates from abroad would leave the city.