Telangana bill reaches climax
Hyderabad: As the third round of the Assembly session begins on Friday to continue the debate on the draft Telangana bill, all eyes are riveted on YSR Congress Party's strategy which has so far been opposing the discussion and demanding a voting straightaway.
There is an argument in some quarters that YSRCP might change its tactics and agree to participate in the debate. If it stays away from the debate throughout the session, then it will not have a strong case to argue in future in the event of the bifurcation issue ending up in a court of law, it is argued.
The YSRCP members were suspended from the House on the last day of the second round of session, held from January 3 to 10. They might face a similar action if they continue to create raucous in the House on Friday.
The party has been insisting that voting should be taken up and the draft bill should be defeated on the floor of the House. The party leaders reiterated the same demand on Thursday and made it clear that they would pitch for voting and would not participate in the debate.
"We will not take part in the debate but, as legislators we will express our opinion. We are totally opposed to the proposed bifurcation of the State," party MLA B Karunakar Reddy said, after a strategy meeting chaired by the party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Thursday.
The Seemandhra Congress legislators, at the instance of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, are planning to ensure that the debate extends beyond February so that the Bill would not reach the Parliament during the budget session.On the other hand, the Centre has hinted that it would give 10 more days to the Assembly to complete the debate.
However, Assembly or the government has to send a formal request in this regard. Chief Minister, who skipped the Congress Working Committee meeting in Delhi on Thursday, will participate in the Assembly session and is likely to guide the Seemandhra leaders on the strategy to be adopted during the debate.
He is likely to speak on the Bill at the end of the debate after the presentations by the floor leaders of other parties like N Chandrababu Naidu, E Rajendar, G Mallesh, Akbaruddin Owaisy, J Ranga Reddy, G Kishan Reddy, Jayaprakash Narayana and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana.
Several amendments have been proposed to the clauses of the draft bill by legislators from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. Primarily, they proposed "deletion" of Clause 1 that, stands for enactment of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
On their part, the Telangana legislators too sought several changes in the draft bill but termed them "views\suggestions" instead of amendments. The Telangana MLAs opposed the clause 8 that seeks to vest decisive powers with the "common Governor" and clause 5 (1) that makes Hyderabad the "common capital" for a period not exceeding 10 years.
The Telangana Congress suggested that Hyderabad may be made the common capital temporarily for a period not exceeding ten years or till completion of the new capital for residuary State, whichever is earlier.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi wanted Hyderabad as common capital only for a period of three years. These amendments will now have to be put to vote, which is expected to take a lot of time. The Telangana MLAs are opposed to voting on the clauses.
Meanwhile Telugu Desam Party is demanding certain clarifications on the bill. "We sought information on the assets and liabilities of the State but the government said the information was not available.
We also wanted to know the income, both government and private, accrued from Hyderabad city but that was also not given," TDP senior MLAs D Narendra Kumar, P Kesav and D Umamaheswara Rao said.
The TDP also sought information relating to investments in the private sector in different regions of the state as also the irrigation water resources but got no answer from the government.
News Posted: 17 January, 2014
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