BRS legislators suspended from Telangana Assembly

Speaker G. Prasad Kumar suspended BRS MLAs for two days from the Telangana Assembly amid protests demanding a House Committee probe into alleged illegal mining involving Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy during the ongoing Budget session.

Hyderabad:  Amidst the unrelenting protests from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislators seeking constitution of a House Committee on the alleged involvement of Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy in illegal mining and his removal from the Cabinet, the Speaker G Prasad Kumar suspended the BRS legislators from the Assembly for two days of the ongoing budget session.

The Chair had also referred the issue of Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy to the Committee on Ethics. The assembly proceedings on Sunday began on a tumultous note with the BRS benches insisting on a House Committee probe and removal of the Revenue Minister from the Cabinet. The BRS members held aloft placards and raised slogans in support of their demands.

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Amidst the din, the Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu introduced the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Third Amendment) Bill and even as the slogan shouting continued, the Bill was passed. Later, SC Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman introduced the Telangana Employees Accountability and Monitoring of Parental Support Bill. As the Speaker allowed the BJP legislator Payal Shankar to speak on the Bill, the BRS members continued their demand for House Committee.

Intervening, the BJP MLA K Venkataramana Reddy suggested to the Government to concede to the demand for a House Committee. He said there were only two days left for the Budget session and if the stalemate continued between the ruling and opposition benches, how could the House transact business.
The Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy countered his suggestion arguing that when a case to probe into the alleged irregularities in Kaleshwaram project was handed over to the CBI, there was no development at all. “Do not give any specific suggestions”, he snapped at the BJP member.

Countering the BRS demand for House Committee, the Chief Minister said a CID probe was already ordered into the charges levelled by the opposition MLAs.

Launching a counter attack, Revanth Reddy charged that the former Minister T Harish Rao’s close relatives were involved in a land scam at Balanagar mandal of Mahabubnagar district. “We are prepared to constitute a House Committee on this issue, if the BRS is ready for investigation,” Revanth Reddy said.

Intervening the discussion, the Legislative Affairs Minister pointed out that in the past, three House Committees were constituted on illegal sale and occupation of government lands, Wakf properties and Cooperative Housinf Society irregularities. But the Committees had not tabled their reports so far, he said.

Meanwhile, the MLAs from Treasury benches found fault with BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy’s gestures towards Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari. They wanted the Speaker to suspend him from the House.

With the BRS MLAs continuing their demand for House Committee and sloganeering, the Legislative Affairs Minister moved a motion to for suspension of the BRS MLAs from the House for interrupting the proceedings.

The motion was passed and the Speaker suspended the BRS MLAs for two days from the House for the budget session, which is scheduled to conclude on Monday.