24 BRS MLAs suspended from Assembly

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs were suspended from the Telangana Assembly for two days for stalling the proceedings of the House.

Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar announced the suspension of 24 BRS members present in the House after a resolution moved by Legislative Affairs Minister D. Sridhar Babu was adopted by a voice vote.

The legislators of the main opposition party have been disrupting proceedings over their demand for the House Committee to probe the allegations of corruption and illegal mining against Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.

As soon as the House met for the day, the BRS members raised the issue and demanded that a House Committee be constituted. They sought to move an adjournment motion, but the Speaker disallowed the same.

The BRS members trooped into the well of the House and raised slogans, disrupting the proceedings.

The government rejected the demand for a House Committee. The members of the ruling Congress party argued that since the government has already ordered a CB CID inquiry into the alleged illegal mining in the state happening since 2014, there was no need for a House Committee.

The issue triggered an exchange of heated words between BRS and Congress members. Certain remarks made by BRS MLA Kaushik Reddy about Kadiyam Srihari evoked strong protest from the treasury benches.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and ministers accused the BRS of stalling proceedings of the House. The Chief Minister called for suspending the BRS members. He also alleged that BRS was insisting on the House Committee, as it wants to blackmail the minister through a couple of members on the panel.

The Chief Minister asked BRS members to produce whatever evidence they have before the CB CID.

As the repeated appeals by the Speaker to the BRS members to cooperate in the smooth functioning of the House yielded no response, the legislative affairs minister moved the resolution of their suspension from the House for two days.

BRS deputy leader in Assembly T. Harish Rao, party working president K.T. Rama Rao, former Ministers T. Srinivas Yadav, Jagdish Reddy and Gangula Kamalakar were among the BRS MLAs suspended from the House.

The BRS MLAs later staged a protest in the Assembly premises and accused the government of stifling the voice of the opposition.

The Budget session of the Assembly is scheduled to conclude on March 31.