HYDERABAD: On the second day of the budget session, the AP Assembly sat precisely for 20 minutes: from 9 am to 9.06 am; from 9.42 to 9.49; and from 10.10 to 10.17. With TDP members raising a ruckus over revelations of liquor payoffs to ministers and the TRS doing the same demanding a house resolution on Telangana, the speaker tried to cajole the house to get down to business but failed. Finally, after two adjournments, he gave up and called it a day.
As soon as the House sat for the day, adjournment notices flew thick and fast: TDP members wanted a discussion on the liquor payoffs, the TRS and BJP MLAs wanted to talk about the Telangana issue, and the CPI and CPM wanted the House to discuss the student doctors' strike.
The speaker rejected all the adjournment notices and urged the members to get on with the motion of thanks to the governor's address.
However, opposition members were unrelenting in their demands. Carrying their favourite placards, they trooped into the well of the house and worked up a din.
As there was no change in the situation even after two adjournments, the speaker announced postponement of the questions listed for Question Hour. Chief whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy moved the motion of thanks to the governor's address seconded by Congress MLA M Rajesh Kumar, when the House resumed after the second adjournment.
The opposition members, however, remained adamant and stormed the speaker's podium holding the placards aloft. As the din continued, the speaker gave up.