Winter session of AP legislature to begin on Friday
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The six-day Winter Session of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature will begin here on Friday. Despite a strong demand from the Opposition parties to hold the session for at least 15 days, the government has said it was not possible to extend it beyond December 16.
As the Congress leaders were supposed to attend their three-day party plenary from December 18, the principal Opposition Telugu Desam Party suggested that the session could be reconvened after December 20 for five days. The government, however, rejected it too.
With farmers' issues to be taken up on a priority basis for discussion, the contentious Telangana issue too is expected to be raised as the separatist Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is making a re-entry into the Assembly after a gap of ten months.
The 10 TRS MLAs resigned from their posts in February over the Telangana statehood issue and were re-elected in a by-election in July. The TRS now has 11 MLAs in the 294-member Assembly.
The state government is expected to make a statement in the House on the withdrawal of cases filed against Telangana agitators in December 2009.This is for the first time in the Assembly's history that the session is being held without a regular Speaker.
The Speaker's post fell vacant upon the elevation of N. Kiran Kumar Reddy as state chief minister on November 25. The House will take up discussion on the miseries of farmers in the state caused due to Jal cyclone in October-November and untimely rains this week that destroyed crops on several lakh hectares of land.
The Business Advisory Committee of the Assembly that met on the eve of the Winter Session decided to cancel the Question Hour on Friday and take up the discussion on farmers' miseries.
Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar chaired the meeting while chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Ministers D. Sridhar Babu, Dharmana Prasada Rao, J. Geeta Reddy, Telugu Desam Legislature Party deputy leaders P. Ashoka Gajapathi Raju, Nagam Janardhana Reddy, Praja Rajyam Party leader K Chiranjeevi, Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader E Rajender, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Akbaruddin Owaisi and others attended.
The BAC agreed to conduct the proceedings on December 11 though it is a second Saturday and the House will sit for an evening session on the 14th. The government has five pending Bills to be passed besides six Ordinances, including the one on regulating microfinance institutions, to be replaced with laws.
Later, the Business Advisory Committee of the Legislative Council too met on Thursday to finalise the agenda for the Winter Session. Council chairman A. Chakrapani chaired the meeting that was attended by Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy, leader of Opposition Dadi Veerabhadra Rao and others.
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