Ruling, oppn stalemate leads to House adjournment

Hyderabad, Aug 30 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker K R Suresh Reddy abruptly adjourned the House till evening after ruling Congress and opposition TDP refused to back down over the issue of personal allegations made during the heated debate on land acqusition.

TDLP Deputy Leader T Devender Goud, who initiated the discussion, levelled a serious personal allegation against Congress member C Ramakrishna Reddy after the latter made a reference to the former's huge land holdings, plunging the House into utter pandemonium.

Ruling and opposition party members exhibited their lung power even as the Speaker appealed to both the sides to calm down, assuring them that he would go through the records.

Taking strong objection to the TDP leader's remark against a fellow legislator, first Government Chief Whip N Kiran Kumar Reddy and then Legislative affairs Minister K Rosaiah urged the former to withdraw his remarks and tender an apology not only to the member but to the House as well.

Intervening, Chief Minister and Leader of the House Y S Rajasekhara Reddy appealed to Mr Goud to withdraw his 'highly derogatory and unparliamentary remarks.' Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu felt that when the Speaker was seized of the matter, it would be improper to insist on an apology at this stage and wanted the House to take up the debate, ending the unnecessary deviation.

When Mr Rosaiah suggested that the Speaker adjourn the House for ten minutes to go through the records and give his ruling, CPI(M) floor leader N Narasimhaiah felt that since the issue had been already left to the Speaker, the House should immediately discuss the issue of poor people affected by the acquisition.

As Mr Goud refused to budge from his stand that the speaker after going through the records could expunge any unparliamentary remarks, the speaker said it was not proper for everybody to stick to their guns and adjourned the House to meet again at 1630 hrs.

UNI SM ROY VD RK1527