AP Budget session day 1 round up

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh state Budget session started on Saturday with the address by state Governor E S L Narasimhan. The opposition YSRCP members turned up wearing black scarves to register their protest against the ruling TDP government purchasing their MLAs.

The Governor's speech sighted Andhra Pradesh growth rate to be higher than the national growth rate. This and other details such as the eradicating corruption prompted the opposition members to allege that the speech was not in tune with reality but lacked conscience by quoting half truths, untruths and lies.

Hours before the start of the Budget session of the legislature, a delegation of YSRC MLAs led by party leader Jyothula Nehru, met Rao and filed the petition, seeking action against the defecting MLAs as per 'Schedule X' of the Constitution.  They submitted material evidence such as video recordings and audio clips against the MLAs to establish their defection. 

The Business Advisory Committee led by the Assembly Speaker, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao had decided that the current session would function for 16 working days; against 40 that the opposition had demanded in view of at least 25 major points that they wanted to take up for discussion.

The opposition also protested against the decision of the speaker to allow the nominations for adjournment resolutions only after the question hour and zero hour. They pointed out that there was no such change made by the Rules Committee to this effect.

The YSRCP members, led by the party president, Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy, took out a protest march from Ravindra Bharati to the Assembly premises. They donned black scarves and carried protest the corruption and misrule of the TDP government.