Date:01/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/01/stories/2005040107830400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Guillotining of demands decried

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MARCH 31. Political parties, including the ruling Congress, agreed that considerable time of the House was wasted and budget demands of 36 departments guillotined without discussion in the Assembly, which concluded on Thursday.

The Congress and the Telugu Desam blamed each other for being responsible for it. The Government Chief Whip, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, said that the TDP accorded importance to creating scene in the House and stalling the proceedings.

Mr. Reddy told reporters that the Government acted with patience in the face of disturbance from the Opposition. The TDP lacked substance in its debate, he said.

The TDP whip, P. Keshav, E. Dayakar Rao and D. Narendra Kumar said treasury benches bulldozed the proceedings with their numbers.

TRS charge

They said the Government did not allow problems to come up for discussion as it was scared that its failures would be exposed. The Government gave a new turn to the session by ensuring that less number of problems was discussed over a longer period.

E. Rajender of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) claimed that the TDP was responsible for guillotining of demands. He said his party was unhappy with the Government's response to the demand for implementation of GO 610.