AP assembly seeks revival of Legislative Council

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly yesterday adopted a resolution seeking the revival of the state Legislative Council.

While the MIM, BJP and other independent members along with the ruling Congress and TRS members supported the government resolution, the opposition Telugu Desam Party and the CPI(M) have opposed it.

As many as 207 out of the 256 members present in the House supported the resolution while 44 of them opposed it. Though its leader favoured the creation of the Council, the CPI remained neutral on the issue when the division took place.

Substantiating the government's decision to revive the Legislative Council, finance minister K Rosaiah who introduced the statutory resolution earlier in the day said that a thorough scrutiny and threadbare discussion was needed on matters such as adoption of new bills, which was possible only if an upper house existed in the state.

While terming the whole exercise a waste of money and time, Telugu Desam Party criticised the move and said that the government had considered the revival of the Legislative Council only to manage the 'political unemployment' problem faced by the ruling party.

According to the procedure, the state government sends the proposal along with the resolution by the state Assembly to the Government of India which in turn will introduce a resolution in the Parliament paving way for the creation of the Legislative Council.