Telangana Bill tabled in State Assembly

Hyderabad, Dec 16 (INN): Monday will be remembered as the most chaotic day in the history of Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly.

The historic Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013, aimed at bifurcation of the State to carve out Telangana, the 29th State in the country, was tabled in the House amid protests by legislators from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions.

Chaos and uproar prevailed since the House met at 9 AM on Monday. YSRCP floor leader moved an adjournment motion notice seeking a resolution in favour of united Andhra Pradesh.

On the other side, TRS floor leader Etala Rajender, BJP's E Lakshminarayana and Nagam Janardhan Reddy and CPI's G Mallesh demanded that the Telangana Bill be tabled immediately for discussion.

J Ranga Reddy of CPI (M) moved an adjournment motion seeking debate on power crisis. However, Speaker Nandendla Manohar disallowed all the adjournment motions.

Legislators belonging to the YSRCP, TDP, TRS, BJP and even the Congress party surrounded the Speaker's podium and raised slogans both in favour and against the formation Telangana. Amid uproar, the Speaker adjourned the House at 9.05 AM till 10 AM.

Similar scenes were witnessed when the House re-assembled at 10 AM. On the directions of the Speaker, Legislature Secretary S Raja Sadaram introduced the bill and read out the message from the President of India, asking the House to send back the bill with its views by January 23.

While the ministers and MLAs from the Telangana region were seen thumping the desks, the Seemandhra legislators raised the pitch of "Jai Samaikhyandhra" slogans.

Interestingly, Leader of the House and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu were not present in the House when the Bill was tabled. The process of tabling the Bill was completed in just eight minutes and then the Speaker again adjourned the House for half-an-hour.

However, the House could re-assemble only at 2.55 PM. When the bell rang for re-assembling, the Congress legislators from Seemandhra region entered the House by holding placards with united Andhra Pradesh slogans. The YSRCP MLAs too gheraod the Speaker's podium.

As soon as Deputy Speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka assumed the chair, the TDP MLAs from Seemandhra too moved towards the podium while raising slogans. The TRS MLAs too entered the House raising Jai Telangana slogans.

It was a complete chaos in the House and only a few members were seen standing near their seats. The rest were busy shouting slogans, tearing copies of Telangana Bill, jumping on the tables before the Speaker's podium and someone even broke the Speaker's mike.

The Deputy Speaker was then provided a cordless mike through he directed Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu to direct the MLAs to resume their seats. Sridhar Babu said that all the opposition leaders have assured in the last meeting of Business Advisory Committee that they would cooperate in debate on Telangana Bill.

When the Deputy Speaker asked TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu to initiate the debate on the Bill, someone switched on the House Bell leading to further chaos. This forced Vikramarka to adjourn the House for the day till Tuesday.

Despite adjournment, the members of Congress, TDP and YSRCP from Seemandhra stayed in the House.