Andhra Pradesh: 11 Bills cleared amid chaos

Amaravati: Six opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs were suspended for the day on Friday by the Speaker as the Andhra Pradesh Assembly witnessed pandemonium on the last day of the 5-day Winter Session that ended up passing 11 bills amid pandemonium and suspensions.

Suspensions continued on Friday too of the TDP members -- Nimmala Ramanaidu, Butchaiah Chowdary, Jogeshwara Rao, Satya Prasad, Ashok and Ramaraju. Former Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu walked out of the House in protest.

Discussion on Amul dairy took place in the absence of protest-mode. Naidu claimed that he was not given any opportunity to speak or raise contentious issues to present his party's view point.

However, the YSRCP was quick to capitalize on the same pointing out that the discussion was on the dairy industry and alleged that Naidu deliberately goaded his MLAs to create disruptions in the House to avoid any reference to his family owned dairy.

With both the Treasury benches and the Opposition firm in their view on the conduct of the House, the resultant pandemonium alone reigned supreme all the five days. There were several important and immediate issues that went begging for a saner debate leading to solutions like the construction workers' plight due to the pitfalls in the current sand mining policy and the cyclone devastation. The members could not succeed in infusing confidence in the affected populace with their "questionable conduct" cutting across party lines.

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that he had expected Naidu to be present during the discussion on the dairy industry but he unfortunately chose to let his party members storm the Speaker's podium and create chaos for selfish purposes, while Naidu claimed the chaos was engineered by the ruling party members who did not want to face serious questions on the Government's failure. Meanwhile, Speaker Tammineni Seetharam objected to the conduct of opposition lawmakers in the Assembly.

"Every day, you are blocking the House from functioning. I am sad to suspend you every day. Considering their behaviour, I have no other option," lamented Seetharam.

Ruling party whip Gadikota Srikanth Reddy complained that valuable time of the Assembly members was getting wasted daily, while voicing his displeasure over the TDP MLAs' conduct near the Speaker's seat.

The TDP leadership was equally vehement in denouncing the Chief Minister and his MLAs terming them bullies and undemocratic. The claims of the government on succour given to the people were 'white lies' the Opposition stated.

Perhaps, the only highlight, however dubious it may sound, of this session was the sit-in staged by a senior leader like Chandrababu Naidu.

This session may be best remembered for this development alone!