AP oppn disrupts governor’s address
For the second time since 2009, the governor’s address was disrupted in the 13th Assembly by the opposition on the ground that the issue of statehood of Telangana and farmers’ welfare were ignored by the Kiran Kumar Reddy regime.
Besides tearing the booklet containing governor’s address to pieces, the agitated legislators especially those who belonged to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) threw torn pieces at Governor E S L Narasimhan who was steadfastly bawling out the achievements of his government. The opposition comprising the TRS ,TDP, CPI ,CPM and the BJP staged a noisy walkout of the joint session of the Assembly and council members on Monday morning .
Only the MIM and Lok Satta members remained seated in the House.
Security has been beefed up around the Assembly premises with nearly 1,200 policemen in view of the protest plans by opposition parties who all came to the Assembly premises by taking out padayatras to attract media attention; only the censored version of the inside proceedings of the assembly were released to media .
In view of last year’s experience of pandemonium in the House during the governor’s address, the podium of the governor was completely cordoned off by security marshals and also the legislature officials.
Chairs in the hall were tied together with a rope to avoid from being used by the agitated legislators as they did in the previous year .
Tight security arrangements were made inside the House in view of last year’s unprecedented incidents during the governor's address when members of the TRS and the TDP had stormed the podium, heckled the governor and uprooted the mikes. The Assembly and the governor's security personnel formed a strong cordon around him this time to keep the protesting legislators at bay. Security personnel surrounding Narasimhan had a tough time protecting him. Raising slogans of "Jai Telangana", the TRS members tried to advance towards the governor and disrupt his speech but the marshals stalled them. Amid pandemonium, the governor rushed through his 40-page address at breakneck speed and completed the speech in less than half an hour.
The legislators of the main opposition, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), also disrupted the governor's address, raising slogans against the government's failure to tackle problems of farmers and other sections of people.
Normalcy returned after 15 minutes as the entire opposition walked out of the House. They also protested against the governor's "failure" to dismiss the ministers facing allegations of corruption and the overall inaction on part of the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in addressing various issues of public concern, including the liquor scam.
The TDP, TRS, CPI and the BJP staging protests at mediapoint on the Assembly premises alleged that people's issues were ignored in the governor's address.
The TRS legislators said they walked out on the governor's address as there was no mention of Telangana. "We will not allow the House to run unless a resolution for the formation of a Telangana state is passed in the House," TRS leader E Rajender said.
The lone CPM legislator J Ranga Reddy went around the Assembly with two flowers in his ear, symbolically indicating that the government was fooling people once again.
