VIJAYAWADA: Opposition Telugu Desam MLAs were suspended from the Andhra Pradesh Assembly for the third consecutive day on Monday as they violated rules and pressed for a discussion on various issues of farmers.
Pandemonium prevailed in the assembly as TD legislators laid siege to the podium, shouting slogans and calling chief minister Jagan a traitor to the farmers. As the situation worsened, assembly speaker Tammineni Sitaram suspended all the TD MLAs for a day.
TD legislators demanded a discussion on farmers’ difficulties and showed placards asking, “CM Jagan, when will you pay the amount for procured paddy?” etc. They created scenes when the minister for water resources was giving answers to questions on the Polavaram project.
TD MLAs claimed that Jagan promised to give Rs 10 lakh each compensation to Polavaram displaced persons but did not do so.
Minister Rambabu said the TD government had offered only Rs 6.86 lakh as compensation but CM Jagan increased it to Rs 10 lakh and orders were issued. He said Chandrababu Naidu destroyed the Polavaram project with reckless planning. “The spillway and approach works should be completed first to construct the cofferdam, but Naidu constructed the cofferdam first, which shows his inefficiency.”
Speaker Sitaram adjourned the assembly several times to control the situation. After the election of Kolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy as deputy speaker, the assembly resumed discussions but TD MLAs climbed on to the speaker’s podium demanding a discussion on farmers’ issues, but the demand was rejected.
Speaker Sitaram appealed to them to cooperate with him for the smooth functioning of the assembly but this did not help restore order. Minister for finance and legislative affairs Buggana Rajendranath proposed to suspend the TD MLAs and the speaker suspended all opposition legislators for a day.
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