Hyderabad, March 06: For the first time in the history of AP Assembly, the discussion on budget (2010-11) which was declared closed by the Speaker yesterday, was reopened today with Opposition taking the Government to task for winding it up without members speaking on it and without the Chief Minister giving a reply.
When the Opposition parties took exception to winding up discussion the previous night during Question Hour, the Speaker adjourned the House and called Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting which took the decision to reopen the discussion. Though there was no precedent of reopening a discussion after the Speaker announced it closed, yet the BAC took the decision to resume the discussion.
After representatives of all parties spoke on the budget, Chief Minister K Rosaiah in his 70-minute reply to the discussion defended the allocations made for various sectors and said that the Government had not lost sight of the twin objectives of according priority to welfare and development.
Not satisfied with the reply, the main Opposition TDP staged a walkout in protest against the Chief Minister leaving the House after reply, not bothering to listen to the clarifications being sought by Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu. Speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy adjourned the House to tomorrow, even as TDP members threw the papers into the air.
Rosaiah spent a major portion of his time, comparing the allocations made to various sectors by the Congress Government with those made during the Chandrababu Naidu’s regime. “After coming to power in 2004 the Congress Government has been giving top priority to both welfare and development.
They are our two eyes. We have a clear goal and we are striving in that direction. Raising debts is not wrong as long as they are spent for creation of assets,’’ he maintained.
Naidu remarked that Rosaiah, in his budget reply, had failed to show a solution to the problems faced by the people and instead resorted to criticism on the TDP. The Congress Government had failed to provide irrigation facility to at least one acre of land even after spending Rs.50,000 crore on projects during the last five years period.
Jalayagnam programme has turned into `Dhanayagnam’, he charged.
As Naidu was continuing his tirade against the Government, the Chief Minister left the House. A furious Naidu threw papers on the desk and staged a walkout. “What is the use in talking on the budget when the Chief Minister has already left the House. We are staging a walkout,’’ he said.
Earlier resuming his discussion, TDP member Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy remarked that the `regional feelings’ had arisen in the State because of Government’s `policies’. Besides cut in budgetary allocations to several important sectors, discrimination was shown in respect of funds allocation to NIMS in Nalgonda district and that of RIMS in Kadapa.
Others who spoke included MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, K Kanna Babu (PRP), G Kishan Reddy (BJP), Jayaprakash Narayan (LSP), G Mallesh (CPI), J Ranga Reddy (CPM), A Vivekananda Reddy and G Venkata Ramana Reddy (Congress).
–Agencies