YSRCP no trust motion fizzles out

Hyderabad: The no confidence motion moved by YSRCP rocked the state Assembly and went off the tangent with the remorseless attitude of the leader of opposition who steadfastly refused to apologise for making certain remarks against the judiciary.

After a four hour long heated debate which witnessed several acrimonious scenes between the opposition and the ruling party and as the leader of opposition despite repeated request by the Speaker, the Minister of Legislative Affairs and the House in general refused to withdraw his comments, the discussion ended abruptly as the Speaker had put the motion to vote.

It all began with the leader of opposition alleging that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the past did not allow investigation into charges of corruption against him by obtaining stay from courts. Reacting to this, Naidu on Monday read out judgements given by various courts including Supreme Court and High Court, to prove his point that all the cases filed against him were politically motivated and did not have any merit.

Replying to allegations made by Jagan, Naidu said twenty six cases were filed against him during YSR’s regime but all of them were dismissed by courts as they found them not maintainable and lack of merit. The Chief Minister said the Supreme Court had struck down the demand for CBI probe against him and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) also did not take up the case for lack of evidence.

Yet, Jagan was raking up the issue time and again to defame him. Naidu said, “Jagan had leveled several allegations right now. If he has any evidence against me, let him prove it.” Naidu added that unless he proves the allegations or presents documentary evidence the discussion cannot move forward.

Jagan who was facing CBI cases was spreading lies against him and his party colleagues. "If Jagan cannot show evidence I will have initiate immediate action against him. Because of his actions, farmers in the capital region are getting restless, Naidu said.

Accusing Jagan of trying to create hurdles in the development of the State, the Chief Minister said the leader of the opposition did not want the government to take up development; hence he was creating trouble for the government by raking up the issue of corruption. "Due to Jagan's actions, investors may not show interest in investing in our state. He should refrain from this keeping state's interest in mind," he said.

Referring to another charge made by Jagan that a huge scam had taken place in 1,000 mw solar park tenders being executed by NTPC in Anantapur district, the Chief Minister said the tenders had not yet been finalised hence there was no question of favour or corruption. "We will finalise tenders in a transparent manner. We will not give scope for any kind of corruption," he said.

On Jagan's allegation of corruption in fiber optic connectivity project being implemented by Cisco, Naidu said the tenders would be called in a transparent manner and there would be no scope for favouritism. In fact, the government in order to reduce the cost decided to use electricity poles to lay the cables rather than going underground.

"Laying cables underground will cost Rs 5,000 crore, hence we have decided to use poles instead. This had brought down the cost to Rs 380 crore," Naidu pointed out. The proposal aims at making available at least 10-15 Mbps broadband connection each to 12 million homes in the state at a price of about Rs 150 per month and on-demand availability of 100 Mbps to one Gbps connection to every business enterprise, he said.

Naidu even asked the Speaker that how long they have to bear this kind of “rowdyism.” Finally as Jagan stated that he had not said anything wrong and hence would not apologise, the Speaker had put the motion to vote which was defeated by a voice vote.