House panel on faction violence set up

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 21. The mild controversy over the delay in constituting a House Committee to recommend measures to end factional violence ended today with the nomination of an 18- member panel.

Mr. Gouthu Shyam Sunder Sivaji of the TDP will head the Committee whose terms of reference were finalised at a meeting of Assembly floor leaders convened by the Speaker, Mrs. K. Pratibha Bharathi, here.

The other members of the Committee are Messrs G. Butchaiah Chowdary, David Raju, Bode Janardhan K. Jayaram, Y. Ella Reddy, S. A. Khaleel Basha, Ms. P. Varalakshmi, C. Mutyam Reddy, S. Chandramohan Reddy (all TDP), Kanna Lakshminarayana, Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, N. Varadarajulu Reddy, J. Ratnakar Rao (all Congress), M. S. Parthasarathi (BJP), Asaduddin Owaisi (MIM) and Nomula Narsimhaiah (MIM).

The Government had agreed to constitute the House Committee during the course of a debate in the Assembly on March 31 this year over the rampant factional violence in Rayalaseema region. The debate was the fall-out of multiple murders in Kapatralla village of Devanakonda village of Kurnool district in which a TDP leader, P. Venkatappa Naidu, was the prime accused. However, even after lapse of over four months the Committee was not constituted nor were its terms of reference finalised drawing flak from the Leader of the Opposition, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who criticised the Government as well as the Speaker for the delay. At the hour-long meeting of floor leaders, the House Committee was given fairly exhaustive terms of reference. It was asked to identify the socio-political factors which cause and sustain factionalism in the State. The other terms of reference are: recommend specific steps to prevent and check growth of factionalism, recommend measures to break the nexus between political leaders and factional elements, review and recommend additional measures to reinforce the administrative, police and legal machinery and identify the sources of illicit funds which fuel factionalism.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy, Mr. N. Narsimhaiah (CPI-M) and Mr. N Indrasena Reddy (BJP) said the Committee should be asked to submit its report within three months since it was a burning problem.

The Minister for Legislative Affairs, Mr. Y. Ramakrishnudu, admitted that a `communication gap' had led to delay in constituting the panel.

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