10 TDP MLAs suspended

Pandemonium in TS Assembly over farmer suicides

• TDP members object to Agri minister’s statement
• Minister said suicides were not due to farm related issues
• TDP members demand unconditional apology from minister
• Speaker calls floor leaders for discussion but fails to take a decision
• Speaker adjourns House but that did not help
• Harish Rao then moved a motion which was carried by voice vote
• 10 MLAs were then bundled out by marshals

Hyderabad: The TS Assembly on Friday witnessed the first suspension of 10 legislators belonging to Telangana Telugu Desam Party (TTDP) for a day.

The trouble started soon after the Assembly session commenced for the day. TTDP, Congress and BJP MLAs barged into the well of the house demanding that the minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy be sacked for his comments on reason for farmer’s suicides.

TDP leader E Dayakar Rao alleged that the Agriculture minister had insulted farmers by making statement that the peasants were committing suicides because of their family problems and not because of agriculture related problems. Dayakar Rao alleged that the minister apparently was not taking the issue seriously and demanded unconditional apology from the minister and removal from the state cabinet.

As the members refused to go back to their seats, the Speaker adjourned the House for 10 minutes. The Speaker called the floor leaders and discussed with them on how to conduct the House smoothly. He appealed to them to follow the decisions taken at the business advisory committee meeting on Wednesday.

But this meeting did not help in restoring normalcy. When the House met after the break the opposition party members again walked into the well of the house and raised slogans. The Speaker was forced to adjourn the house once again as members refused to withdraw from the well of the house. Even an appeal from the leader of the house K Chandrasekhar Rao did not have any impact on them.

After a 40 minute break also the situation did not change and at this stage, the AIMIM leader Akbaruddin urged the government to suspend the agitating MLAs and see that the House functions normally. Owaisi said that the opposition was interested in creating ‘Tamasha’ in the House.

They should not be allowed to obstruct the proceedings and the House should function as per the decisions taken at the business advisory committee, he said. Taking the cue Excise minister Padma Rao held quick confabulations with Akbar and then spoke to the legislative affairs minister T Harish Rao who whispered something into KCRs ears. Sensing the government’s intentions Congress and BJP members who were protesting in the well walked back to their seats.

Harish Rao stating that the House should take up the business as per the schedule that was decided at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) said that they were ready to take up debate on any issue after the completion of the question hour. He also pointed out that there was no precedence in the last 10 years that the adjournment motions moved by the opposition were allowed. Harish Rao then moved the motion seeking suspension of the 10 TTDP MLAs for disrupting the proceedings.

After the motion was adopted by voice vote, the MLAs -- E Daya- kar Rao, A Revanth Reddy, G Saianna, A Gandhi, M Gopinath, M Kishn Reddy, M Krishna Rao, T Prakash GOud, S Rajendar Reddy and S Venkata Veeraiah -- were bundled out from the House by the Assembly Marshals.