Protests, Slogans Mar First Day Of Assembly Session

The opening day of the winter session of the Telangana Legislative Assembly on Friday witnessed protests and slogan-shouting by the Congress members in the House on the issue of the farmers' plight and crop damage due to unprecedented rains in the state recently.

Trouble began soon after the House assembled at 10 am and the Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy took up the question hour as per the agenda. The Congress members immediately protested and demanded that the House take up their adjournment motion first on the issue of the farmers' conditions. Even the BJP members wanted that the farmers' issue have precedence over the question hour.

The Deputy Speaker however did not yield to the members' demand and pointed out that as decided in the BAC meeting the question hour needed to be completed first. She promised to consider the demand of the Congress and BJP members, but only after the completion of the question hour.

However, the Congress members persisted, and raised slogans and stormed into the podium. The House reverberated with the slogans against the government by the Congress MLAs, who did not yield to the appeals by the Chair to maintain peace and decency in the House and allow the proceedings to continue.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's attempt to persuade the protesting Congress members to get back to their seats saying that the government was prepared to discuss all the issues raised by the Opposition parties did not yield any result.

Amidst the sloganeering by the Congress members, the Deputy Speaker commenced the question hour anyway. As the question hour was in progress and the ruckus by the Congress members continued unabated, the floor leader of the MIM Akbaruddin Owaisi made a fervent appeal to the protesting members to resume their seats and allow the question hour to be completed and then take up the farmers' issue. While agreeing that the farmers' issue was very important and that his party too was for a discussion on the subject, he felt that the question hour should be allowed first. He appealed to the Deputy Speaker to restore calm and peace in the House and asserted that if the Congress members failed to yield to the requests of the Chair, then stern action should be initiated against them.

However the Congress members stuck to their guns resulting in continuing pandemonium in the House. The Deputy Speaker too stood firm on her ruling and ensured that the questions listed for the day were taken up for reply by the ministers. As per the decision taken at yesterday's BAC meeting the question hour was extended to one and half hours instead of one hour. And once the question hour was completed, the Deputy Speaker abruptly adjourned the House to Monday.