The Congress has come forward for a discussion on the Telangana statehood issue in the state Assembly, but with a rider; it would be done only after the Centre takes the final decision on it.
Speaking to reporters after the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting, government chief whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy said the issue of discussion on Telangana statehood in the Assembly came up during the BAC meeting and chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy told the members that the decision on Telangana has to be taken by the Centre and once it is done, the state government will have no objection to discussing the issue in the state Assembly. The government is even ready to pass a resolution on Telangana in the Assembly once the centre takes the decision, he said.
In fact, legislative affairs minister D Sreedhar Babu asked the government to discuss Telangana statehood issue in the current Assembly session, Reddy said. The Congress has been saying from the beginning that Parliament is the right forum to discuss the Telangana issue and since creating a new state is not in the hands of the state government, discussing it in the Assembly will serve no purpose.
The TRS wanted the House to pass a resolution in favour of Telangana state and lift cases against those who took part in the Telangana agitation. The “Chalo Assembly” issue did not figure in the BAC meet, he said.
The chief whip said opposition party members put forward issues like drought, drinking water scarcity, power crisis, power tariff hike, liquor policy, belt shops, irrigation projects, Telangana, SC/ST sub-plan, BC/minority sub-plan, Bayyaram mines and Brahmani steel plant for discussion during the meeting.
Session till June 21: The chief whip said the current session of Assembly will go on till June 21. Opposition members wanted the government to extend the session by one more week, to which the chief minister responded positively and assured them that if the House functions properly this week, then a BAC meet will be called on June 17 and the issue will be discussed.
The chief minister informed the members that local body polls notification will be issued after June 21 and the budget session has been fixed accordingly. Hence, extending of the session will be not be possible, but if the House runs smoothly in the next five days then the government will think of extending the duration of the session.
Standing committee reports on various issues will be placed before the House on Tuesday.
According to sources, leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu urged Speaker N Manohar to run the House in a proper way so that important issues can be discussed. “Its the duty of the Speaker and the ruling party to see that the House runs in a proper manner,” he said. Responding to Naidu’s suggestion, the chief minister said the government too wants the House to run smoothly and take up important issues. “The government wants to take up important issues and pass important bills during the session. For this, it is ready to cooperate with the opposition,” he remarked.