Andhra assembly adjourned over Telangana issue

Hyderabad  :  The monsoon session of the Andhra Pradesh assembly began on a stormy note Monday as legislators from various parties noisily demanded a resolution on the issue of statehood for Telangana, leading to the house being adjourned for the day.

The house was first adjourned repeatedly and then till Tuesday as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) demanded a Telangana resolution.

The legislators surrounded Speaker N. Manohar’s podium. Members of the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also rushed towards his podium. Amid the din, the speaker adjourned the house for the day.

He had earlier adjourned the house twice.

As soon as the house met for the day, TRS and BJP members were on their feet raising slogans of ‘Jai Telangana’. They ignored the speaker’s repeated appeals to allow the house to take up debate on the electricity problem. The speaker then adjourned the house for 45 minutes.

There was no change in the situation when the house re-assembled. Manohar again adjourned the house for half-an-hour and finally on the third occasion for the day.

With this, the assembly lost the first day of the five-day session. The TDP and other opposition parties were already unhappy with the government for calling a brief session when the people are facing numerous problems.

Earlier, TDP legislators led by party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu reached the assembly in a ‘padyatra’ to protest severe power shortage in the state. Holding a lantern in his hands, Naidu along with his party MLAs marched from Tank Bund to the assembly. The leader of opposition alleged that the crisis had hit hard farmers and industry.

Legislators of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) reached the assembly on bicycles to protest the hike in diesel price and the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders.