House to sit till Sept. 22

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 13. The monsoon session of the Assembly, which began on Thursday, will continue till September 22.

The business advisory committee (BAC) of the House took the decision amidst a walk-out by the Leader of the Opposition, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The House would thus be sitting for 9 working days including Saturdays. Dr. Reddy wanted the House to sit for more number of days, but not on Saturdays. The Government was insistent that the session was broken only by Sunday, leading to the walk-out, later termed by the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, unfortunate and unprecedented.

The Congress and other Opposition parties said the House should sit for at least 60 days in a year, but the Government rejected the suggestion and offered to limit the present sitting to 9 days and have another brief session in December, taking the total for the calendar year to close to 50 days. The budget session had lasted 30 days.

The Chief Minister reminded the Opposition that while the Assembly sat for an average of 44 days a year during the Congress regime (1989-94), it was 47.8 days under the Telugu Desam (1994- 99). After the Congress walk-out, the Government secured acceptance of other parties for its proposal to wind up on September 22. It will also sit on September 15, Saturday.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu briefed members of the Telugu Desam Legislature Party (TDLP) about the BAC decisions.

The House will take up discussion on the drought situation immediately after question hour on Friday. The meeting also identified a number of subjects for short discussion such as ``forcible collections'' by Transco, HIV/AIDS, Krushi Bank fraud, elections to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, etc.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : DocuWorld India: CM to be chief guest
Next     : PM agrees to enhance rice quota, says Naidu