AP Council Chairman decides to send two Bills to the Select Committee

Amaravati: The move to shift executive capital to Visakhapatnam has been stalled for at least one month as the Chairman of the Legislative Council Mohd Shareef late on Wednesday evening announced his decision to refer the two Bills, AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of all Regions Bill, 2020 and the AP Capital Region Development Authority (Repeal) Bill, 2020 to a select committee under rule 154.

Normally a bill can be sent to select committee after voting takes place on the issue. But in this case, it was referred to the select committee by the Chairman using his extra ordinary powers. Under rule 154, there is no need for voting. It also cannot be challenged in court of law, experts claim.

In a day long high drama, the government made all out efforts to stall the bill from being sent to select committee saying that the rules have not been followed by the opposition and they did not raise the issue at the time of consideration and hence it cannot be sent to the select committee. But the leader of opposition Y Ramakrishnudu said that they had given notice and moved the motion in time and if it was not moved by the Chairman's office, it was not their mistake and they cannot be punished for it.

He also said that as per rules, the bill should not have been taken up for discussion since the Council had rejected the policy of the Government under rule 71. But the government said that the opposition had violated the rules and did not move the motion for select committee at the time of consideration of the bills and hence it cannot be sent to select committee.

After lot of heated exchanges, when the Chairman was about to announce his decision, about 20 ministers rushed to the podium and this led to the TDP members also to follow them and there were heated arguments again on the issue and amidst the pandemonium, the Chairman adjourned the house for 15 minutes. But this went on for about three hours. In the meantime, the Chairman called all the floor leaders and asked them for their suggestions since it was a tricky situation and he too was under state of confusion. It is learnt that all of them told him to strictly go by the rules. As the Chairman completed giving his ruling, the YSRCP members stormed into the Well of the House and tore the copies of the ruling. The YSRCP and TDP members nearly came to blows.

Later when the House reassembled, the Chairman said that the TDP had given a notice under rule 71 and he had agreed to take up discussion. In an unusual situation, he also accepted the government bills while the discussion under rule 71 was on. At this point, the TDP gave amendments to the government bills which included referring it to the select committee. Technically, there was an error and the it was not moved at the time of consideration of the bills moved by the government. The Chairman said as the house took up the discussion on Wednesday, the leader of opposition Y Ramakrishnudu raised the issue and wanted the bills to be sent to select committee. After hearing the arguments of both sides and after discussing with all floor leaders, the Chairman said that he had two options before him. One to consider the bills and put them to vote and decide their fate and second to use his discretionary powers and give a ruling. Since as per rules the bill cannot be referred to the select committee due to technical reasons, he is using his discretionary power under rule 154 and decided to refer it to a select committee.

This led to pandemonium in the house and the Chairman left the House. The YSRCP members and ministers took strong objection to this decision of the Chairman and protested.