BJP MLAs suspended from Telangana Assembly on Day 1 of Budget session
The Hindu
Congress MLAs walk out of the Assembly accusing the Speaker of running the House unilaterally.
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The first day of the budget session commenced with the suspension of the three BJP MLAs for the rest of the Assembly session on Monday.
In midst of the budget speech by Finance Minister T. Harish Rao, the Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav moved a motion seeking suspension of the BJP legislators. The three MLAs – T. Raja Singh, M. Raghunandan Rao and Etela Rajender were suspended for rest of the session.
The BJP MLAs were charged with disrupting the budget speech and protesting the decision of the State Government not to invite the Governor to address the joint session of the Legislature on the first day of the budget session.
Raising slogans, the BJP MLAs left the House and later sporting black ‘kanduvas’ staged a sit in outside the Assembly gate.
In a related development, Congress Legislators too walked out of the Assembly protesting that the Government was violating the spirit of the Constitution by not following the rules in the meetings. The alleged that the Speaker was running the House unilaterally without at least respecting the members by flouting the rules without even giving a mic to raise point of order.
Earlier, in the day, the budget session of the Telangana Legislature commenced with the Finance Minister T.Harish Rao presenting the budget.
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.