Telangana statehood issue continues to rock AP Assembly

Hyderabad, Feb 22 (PTI) The contentious Telanganaissue continued to paralyse the Andhra Pradesh Assembly as theTRS members today disrupted its proceedings demanding aresolution on statehood to the region.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLAs disruptedproceedings during the evening session, specially convened todiscuss the fee reimbursement issue, forcing Deputy SpeakerNadendla Manohar to adjourn the House without transacting anybusiness.

Two adjournments failed to bring order in the Assemblyforcing the Deputy Speaker, who was in the Chair, to end theday''s session.

Holding placards and raising slogans demanding thatthe House adopt a resolution seeking statehood for Telangana,the TRS lawmakers stood right in front of the Speaker''s chairblocking his view. One BJP MLA, too, joined the protest.

Ministers D Sridhar Babu (Legislative Affairs), PitaniSatyanarayana (Social Welfare) and Government Chief Whip MalluBhatti Vikramarka appealed to the protesting MLAs to let thediscussion on the key issue of fee reimbursement be taken up.

"This is an issue concerning lakhs of students fromthe downtrodden sections pursuing professional courses. Let ushave a debate on this. The Government is spending about Rs4000 crore on the scheme, but facing flak. We have to react toit," Sridhar Babu said.

The Telangana members, however, remained adamant,leading to adjournment of proceedings for 15 minutes.

Similar scenes were seen when the House re-assembledafter half an hour, leading to a second adjournment foranother 15 minutes. Nothing changed even after this, resultingin an abrupt end to the proceedings.