Opposition legislators were evicted from the Telangana state assembly on Wednesday night after they remained seated in the house even after it was adjourned, to protest the government’s ‘unsatisfactory’ reply over farmers’ suicides.
Marshals bodily lifted the legislators out of the assembly building and they were later dropped at the MLA Quarters in police vehicles.
Earlier, the legislators from the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties refused to leave the house after Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy abruptly adjourned the house till Thursday.
The adjournment came after Agriculture Minister P. Srinivas Reddy gave a reply to the two-day debate on the issue.
The opposition parties were not satisfied, and said the minister failed to give clarifications as sought by them.
The minister repeated what Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had earlier said during his intervention.
The debate was marred by sharp exchange of words between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the opposition members, blaming each other for the problems faced by the farmers.
The opposition parties insisted that the government come out with a specific timeframe to release Rs.8,000 crore in one go to implement farm loan waiver scheme.
The agriculture minister said the government would implement the scheme as soon as it mobilises the required funds.
Without giving the number of farmers who committed suicide as sought by the opposition, Srinivas Reddy said enhanced compensation of Rs.6 lakh would be paid in cases of all farmers who committed suicide since June 2, 2014 and as per the guidelines issued by the previous government.
He claimed that it was the highest compensation being paid by any state government in the country for families of farmers committing suicides.
(IANS)