Telangana issue rocks Andhra Pradesh assembly

HYDERABAD: The turmoil over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh triggered unprecedented scenes in the state assembly on Monday with Seemandhra legislators burning and tearing up copies of the draft AP Reorganization Bill minutes after it was tabled in the house by speaker Nadendla Manohar. Significantly, chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy was absent from the house and the CMO claimed that he was indisposed.
The drama started no sooner did the house assemble for the day at 9am. YSR Congress members immediately rushed to the well of the house demanding that the house pass a resolution urging the Centre to keep the state united. Even as Telangana members too got up to rush to the well of the house, the speaker adjourned the house for half an hour.
The house reconvened at 10am and the speaker immediately tabled the draft Telangana Bill which led to cheers and applause from the Telangana MLAs and uproar from the Seemandhra members. Amid the uproar, the speaker adjourned the house again even as TRS legislators rushed to the well and sat on a dharna demanding that the debate on the bill be taken up in the assembly immediately. Copies of the bill were made available to the legislators outside the main hall.
With the house getting adjourned, the scene shifted near the media point where TDP MLA Devineni Uma Maheshwar Rao rushed to the podium and instead of addressing the media, immediately began tearing up the copy of the bill even as a few other Seemandhra legislators burnt copies of the same. At this, the Telangana members got agitated and nearly came to blows with their counterparts from the other region before the police intervened.
The business advisory committee (BAC) of the assembly was scheduled to meet in the afternoon to decide as to when should the debate on the Telangana Bill should be taken up. That has turned out to be a major contentious issue with the Telangana members insisting that the debate should be taken up in the current winter session itself (which is scheduled to be in session till this Friday) while their Seemandhra counterparts are adamant that a special session should be called to discuss the same sometime early next year. In fact, several Seemandhra leaders including Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana have already been stating that the 42-day time given by President Pranab Mukherjee till January 23, 2014, is not enough and that the assembly should be given at least another 20 days to debate the bill clause by clause.
Till late in the afternoon, there was no consensus as to when the house would be reconvened for the day.