VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker Tammineni Sitaram on Tuesday suspended six MLAs of the opposition TDP for the remaining Budget session, which will culminate on March 25. The remaining five MLAs were suspended for a day.
Out of the six MLAs, Anagani Satya Prasad, Bendalam Ashok, V Ramakrishna Babu, and M Rama Raju were suspended for their “aggressive” behaviour (rushing into the well and climbing the podium), and Gadde Rammohan and Y Sambasiva Rao for blowing whistles in the House.
The TDP MLAs stormed into the well immediately after the Speaker initiated the proceedings on Tuesday, and shouted slogans demanding a debate on the alleged hooch tragedy.
Initially, the Speaker suspended Satya Prasad, Ashok, Ramakrishna Babu, Rama Raju for the remaining session.
However, with the remaining TDP legislators continuing to disrupt the proceedings, with two of them even blowing whistles in the House, Gadde Rammohan and Sambasiva Rao were also suspended.
Expressing ire over the opposition MLAs’ actions, the Speaker said: “Is it a fish market? It is not correct. You can blow whistles outside the House. This is Assembly. Safeguard its dignity. Don’t resort to such things. If you cooperate with the House, you will also be respected. You are crossing all limits.”
Coming out of the House, the TDP legislators defended their action. “Though we have been appealing to the Speaker for several days to allow a discussion on the deaths caused due to spurious liquor, he did not give us any opportunity. Despite standing five to six metres away from the Speaker’s chair, we were suspended. We blew whistles to express our resentment,” Rammohan said.
Previously, the Speaker had suspended five MLAs of the TDP — K Atchannaidu, Payyavula Keshav, Goruntla Buchaiah Chowdary, Nimmala Ramanaidu and Dola Bala Veeranjineya Swamy—for the whole session. Out of the total 23 MLAs elected from the TDP, four are supporting the YSRC and have not been coming to the House.
Along with TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, who pledged not to attend the Assembly till his election as the chief minister, two more MLAs N Balakrishna and Ganta Srinivasa Rao have not been attending the ongoing Session. Thus, the number of TDP MLAs who are coming to the House dropped to 16, out of which 11 were suspended till the end of the ongoing Budget session.
Assembly passes labour welfare fund bill
The Assembly on Tuesday passed the Andhra Pradesh Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the Andhra Pradesh Mutually Aided Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022. Minister for Labour G Jayaram said the proposed legislation is intended to appoint vice-chairman as a member of the Labour Welfare Board to improve its functioning. Minister for Agriculture, Co-operation, Marketing and Food Processing K Kannababu said the bill regarding co-operatives isaimed to levy professional tax on employees registered with 45,305 societies