Andhra assembly remains paralysed over Telangana issue

Hyderabad, June 13: The Andhra Pradesh assembly remains paralysed over the Telangana issue, with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (

) stalling the house for the third consecutive day.

A day before the "chalo assembly" called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), the TRS and other parties staged protests over the arrests of hundreds of people across Telangana.

As soon as the house met for the day, the speaker announced that he was rejecting notices for adjournment motions given by various opposition parties.

The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) wanted to raise the issue of price rise. TRS, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) demanded that the government give permission for Friday's march, and stop arrests.

The TRS legislators rushed to the well of the house and surrounded the speaker's podium. Speaker N. Manohar's repeated appeals to the members to resume their seats and cooperate with him in the smooth running of the house failed to restore order.

Amid slogan-shouting by TRS members, the speaker urged the floor leaders of all parties to come to his chamber for a meeting, and adjourned the house for half an hour.

To protest the arrests of Telangana activists, the BJP legislators came to the house with their hands chained.

The assembly was adjourned without any business on Tuesday and Wednesday as TRS stalled proceedings, demanding that the house pass a resolution for the formation of a separate Telangana state.

Earlier, TDP legislators staged a novel protest against the price rise by cooking food in front of the assembly building at Gun Park.

TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu said the prices of essential commodities had gone up by 300 times after the Congress came to power, despite the promise made by it before elections that it would check the price rise in 100 days.

IANS