Appropriation Bill Passed; No Debate

The state Legislative Assembly, on Thursday, the last day of the Budget session, adopted the Appropriation Bill without a debate.

The passing of the Appropriation Bill facilitates the drawal of funds by the government from the Consolidated Fund of the State from 1 April, in tune with the projections made in the 2012-13 budget.

A resolution on Telangana and a debate on suicides for the statehood cause continued to rock the House on Thursday.

The proceedings started at 9am, with the oath-taking ceremony of the recently-elected YSR Congress MLA from Kovvur, N Prasanna Kumar Reddy.

Later, TDP MLA L Ramana, TRS floor leader Etala Rajender, BJP MLA Lakshmi Narayana and independent MLA Nagam Janardhan Reddy gave separate adjournment motions on the Telangana issue.

CPM's J Ranga Reddy, too, gave an adjournment motion, seeking a discussion on the implementation of NREGS scheme in AP.

However, Speaker Nadendla Manohar disallowed all the adjournment motions, and this led to a protest by the TRS, TDP and BJP legislators. They rushed to the Speaker's podium and started raising slogans.

At about 9:06am, the House was adjourned for 15 minutes.

The House met again at about 12:55pm, with Deputy Speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on the chair.

The opposition MLAs continued to create an uproar in the House, raising pro-Telangana slogans.

Amidst the din, Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy presented 2 Appropriation Bills, which were passed with a voice vote.

While the Finance Minister was reading out the Appropriation Bill, Nagar Kurnool MLA Nagam Janardhan Reddy tried to snatch the papers from his hand. However, TRS MLAs Jupally Krishna Rao and K Tarakarama Rao prevented him from doing so.

Interestingly, Chief Minister and Leader of the House N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu were not present in the House when it passed the budget of Rs. 1.45 lakh crore for AP.

Soon after passing the Appropriation Bill, the Deputy Speaker adjourned the House "sine die". (INN)