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Giving a new twist to the current stalemate over the debate on the draft Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday said the state government had to move a resolution before taking up any discussion.
“First let the Speaker of the Assembly and the Chairman of the Legislative Council decide on the procedure to be adopted for initiating the debate on the floor of the House. They also have to study as to how Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh handled the issue of bifurcation,” he told reporters after making a similar suggestion in the state Legislative Council earlier in the day.
Members of the Opposition parties from the Telangana region, however, accused the chief minister of raising the procedural issues only to delay the debate on the floor of the House. The Speaker had tabled the Bill in the Assembly last Friday. On Tuesday, the business advisory committee (BAC) had decided to take up the discussion immediately.
“Why is he talking about the procedures a full one week after the Bill was sent by the President of India and that too after it was tabled in the House?” K Narsa Reddy, a member of Legislative Council questioned.
Meanwhile, the Council and the Assembly were adjourned to January 3 without taking up the proposed debate on the Bill for the second day today as members of the Seemandhra region stalled the proceedings protesting the bifurcation.
The chief minister said the government had to move a resolution whenever a Bill is introduced and it would be debated only after giving sufficient time to members for proposing any amendments. The same procedure had to be followed in this case as well and it was left to the Speaker and the Chairman to spell out the course.
He also said the state government would soon be writing a letter to the Centre seeking clarifications on the issues and doubts raised by a section of members of the legislature, including the absence of objects and reasons in the copy of the Telangana Bill. However, he stated the issue of bifurcation would be decided on the floor of the House during the current session. The House would be convened in two spells from January 3 to January 23 by which time the six-week time given by President Pranab Mukherjee to send the views would come to a close.
