Centre deliberately not taking up discussion: Nadendla Manohar

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Assembly former Speaker Nadendla Manohar said Union government was not taking up no-confidence motion deliberately. He said it was the responsibility of the Speaker to put the House in order and government has to help the Speaker if there was din in the House. It was combined responsibility of Speaker, Leader of the House and Parliament Affairs Minister to run the House peacefully.

He said government should hold talks with the MPs or parties who hold protests in the well. Unlike state Assemblies, members of all parties cooperate if the government makes sincere efforts to run the House peacefully on certain issues. But the Union government did not want to put the House in order, he said. “Motion of no-confidence should be given highest priority.

Transparency in system will be proved by allowing the motion,” he said. Explaining the process of counting the members in support of no-confidence motion, Manohar said Speaker divides the members block wise and send officers to every block to conduct physical counting of the members.

The officers go to the members and tick their names in the register. The speaker also counts the members simultaneously and the check the names with the attendance register to ensure accuracy. “When I was Speaker, I did not allow voice voting when the no-confidence motion was taken up in the Assembly. I conducted physical counting when the live telecast is on,” he said.

Manohar also said he gave at least five minutes to adjourn the House even as the members creating din in the well. “But the Speaker in Lok Sabha is adjourning the House between 30 seconds to 1 minute,” he said. He also said, “Unfortunately, the BJP government reduced the Parliament to the level of Assemblies.

For the first time in the history, the Parliament has approved the finance bill without any debate. It is shameful to the government,” he said. He also said it was all the part of match fixing of BJP with some parties.