BRS legisaltors suspended from Telangana Assembly

Amidst the unrelenting protests from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislators seeking constitution of a House Committee on the alleged involvement of Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy in illegal mining and his removal from the Cabinet, the Speaker G Prasad Kumar suspended the BRS legislators from the Assembly for two days of the ongoing budget session.

The Chair had also referred the issue of Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy to the Committee on Ethics. The assembly proceedings on Sunday began on a tumultous note with the BRS benches insisting on a House Committee probe and removal of the Revenue Minister from the Cabinet. The BRS members held aloft placards and raised slogans in support of their demands.

Amidst the din, the Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu introduced the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Third Amendment) Bill and even as the slogan shouting continued, the Bill was passed. Later, SC Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman introduced the Telangana Employees Accountability and Monitoring of Parental Support Bill. As the



Speaker allowed the BJP legislator Payal Shankar to speak on the Bill, the BRS members continued their demand for House Committee.

Intervening the discussion, the Legislative Affairs Minister pointed out that in the past, three House Committees were constituted on illegal sale and occupation of government lands, Wakf properties and Cooperative Housinf Society irregularities. But the Committees had not tabled their reports so far, he said.

Meanwhile, the MLAs from Treasury benches found fault with BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy’s gestures towards Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari. They wanted the Speaker to suspend him from the House.

With the BRS MLAs continuing their demand for House Committee and sloganeering, the Legislative Affairs Minister moved a motion to for suspension of the BRS MLAs from the House for interrupting the proceedings.

The motion was passed and the Speaker suspended the BRS MLAs for two days from the House for the budget session, which is scheduled to conclude on Monday.