Pandemonium in AP Assembly during Zero hour

Hyderabad, Aug 29 (UNI) Pandemonium prevailed in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly for sometime during Zero Hour when the main opposition Telugu Desam Party sought a firm assurance from the Congress Government on the demands of sarpanchs.

Making a mention about the police lathicharge on sarpanchs on a ''Assembly chalo'' programme to press for devolution of powers and finances to local bodies, TDP legislator Narender Reddy criticised the state government for not delegating the powers to local bodies and trying to suppress their stir by using police force.

Dissatisifed with Panchayatraj Minister J C Diwakar Reddy's brief reply, the TDP members staged a noisy protest in the well of the House for sometime demanding that Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was present in the House, make a firm assurance to sarpanchs.

Panel Speaker B Veda Vyas ruled that there was no scope for a Minister to give a detailed reply during Zero Hour.

Earlier, the CPI(M) members staged a sit-in protest when Speaker K R Suresh Reddy did not allow its floor leader N Narasimhaiah to make a speech while registering his party's protest over non-regularisation of the services of village secretaries, as the time allocated for question hour was already over.

With the CPI(M) members persisting with their demand, the Speaker adjourned the House for Tea break.

Earlier, the House proceedings were disrupted for a while when the Speaker disallowed the adjournments motions given notice of by the TDP, TRS, CPI, CPI(M) on the problems faced by the Backward Classes (BCs), the BJP on acute shortage of cooking gas and kerosene, Janata Party on alleged non-payment of compensation for those displaced by the Sriramsagar project and the BSP on alleged misuse of the INDIRAMMA scheme.

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