The Telugu Desam Party’s conduct in the Legislative Assembly on all five days of the winter session came in for sharp criticism by the ruling YSR Congress Party MLAs in the House on Friday.
Speaker Tammineni Seetharam said he would like to put in place certain “strict rules” for smooth conduct of the proceedings henceforth with the permission of the House.
Pointing to the fact that the TDP MLAs had to be suspended on all five days, he called it a “very bad precedent”. “The Opposition leaders have the right to make their voices heard and the floor of the House is meant for that purpose. But there are certain rules to be followed. Creating pandemonium will not serve any purpose,” he said, adding that there were serious issues to be discussed and instead of taking part in the discussions, the Opposition chose to skip the important sessions.
The Speaker said suspending members everyday was not a happy experience, but he was left with no choice as he had to ensure smooth conduct of the House by facilitating the discussions.
Agriculture Minister K. Kanna Babu alleged that the TDP was keeping off the House as part of a pre-mediated plan as they did not have answers to the issues raised by the government. He said on Friday, the TDP chose to “get suspended” as it knew that as part of the discussion on A.P.-Amul project, the “irregularities” resorted to by Heritage, a company owned by Mr. Chandrababu Naidu’s family, would come to the fore.
Alleging large-scale mismanagement of funds under “Neeru-Chettu” programme, he said the government was ready to answer all the questions raised by the Opposition and yet they had been staying away from the discussions.
Stating that this was not a healthy sign for any law-making body, the Minister urged the Speaker to evolve a mechanism to ensure that the Opposition behaved properly at least from the next sessions.
