Speaker skips House, seeks apology from KCR

Hyderabad: Disillusioned by BRS MLC Thata Madhu’s derogatory comments against him, Speaker G Prasad Kumar stayed away from presiding over the House proceedings on Tuesday. The Speaker said he called Leader of Opposition K Chandrashekhar Rao over the phone and urged him to attend the session, but the latter said he would not be able to attend on health grounds.

The Speaker was insisting that KCR come to the House and tender an apology, as a party MLC had made objectionable comments against him. In an informal interaction with the media, Prasad Kumar said, “We expected an apology in the House over Monday’s incident.

The Opposition was not supporting the House to run as per the proceedings. I am not ready to run the House and appointed senior MLA Kadiyam Srihari as the Panel Speaker.” Prasad Kumar said he permitted BRSLP deputy leader T Harish Rao to speak, anticipating that he would apologise to the Chair over the derogatory remarks made by the BRS MLC. “But the BRS leader diverted the issue and infuriated me. Harish served as a minister in the House for 10 years. How can he fail to respond at all? How can he claim it is outside the Speaker’s

jurisdiction? It falls within the Speaker’s jurisdiction,” he said. The Speaker said he had the power to suspend the two BRS MLCs but had refrained from doing so, as he was not ready to take a decision unilaterally.

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The Hans India