Assembly set for stormy session

Hyderabad: While the Parliament is set to witness T trouble, the State Assembly which would meet here on Monday for a brief Vote-on-Account budget session also promises a high voltage drama.

While the T Ministers have decided not to attend the Cabinet meeting to approve the budget in protest against the stand of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the T MLAs have decided to obstruct the proceedings. The T MLAs met here on Sunday and chalked out an action plan to express their anger over the Chief Minister’s act of sitting on dharna at Jantar Mantar and the incidents that preceded the dharna where women ministers were manhandled by Delhi police. They also want to protest against the manner in which he pushed through the resolution rejecting the T Bill by a voice-vote in the Assembly.

They said they would not allow the proceedings to take place on Monday. On the other hand, the YSRCP MLAs have also decided to stage protests in the House. They also propose to stage a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B R Ambedkar statues. The Seemandhra Congress and TDP MLAs will also join them. Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy will present the vote-on-account in the House on Monday at 10.08 am. He said the vote-on-account is likely to be for the first quarter of the next financial year, that is April to June. The budget is expected to go up by 20 per cent over the present budget of the State. Hence, it is expected that the State budget for the 2014-15 would be around Rs 1.92 lakh crore. But since it would be for the first quarter on 2014 financial year, the amount is likely to be fixed around Rs 48,000 crore.