Telangana bill moved in AP assembly amid chaos

The Andhra Pradesh assembly witnessed uproarious scenes as members from Seemandhra and Telangana virtually came to blows when the bill for the state’s bifurcation was introduced in the House.
Legislators burnt and tore up copies of the draft Telangana bill, gheraoed the speaker for hours in his chamber and manhandled members from the other side of the T-divide soon after the bill was tabled. All attempts to initiate a debate proved futile.
Similar scenes were witnessed in the legislative council too.
Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy was conspicuous by his absence. The Seemandhra Congress camp, headed by Reddy, expressed shock over the tabling of the bill by speaker Nadendla Manohar without consulting the CM and threatened not to allow the House to function.
Legislative affairs minister D Sridhar Babu said the winter session will be on till Friday and appealed to the members to take part in the debate on the bill.
While the Telangana MLAs want the House to complete its debate, the Seemandhra members are bent upon delaying it as much as possible by not allowing the House to function.
As the session began at 9 am, Speaker Nadendla Manohar disallowed various adjournment motions and attempted to initiate the Question Hour. The commotion started when YSR Congress members rushed to the well of the House demanding a resolution on united Andhra while TRS legislators followed them, seeking introduction of the Telangana bill. When the House reassembled after an hour’s adjournment, the AP Reorganization Bill- 2013 was tabled. The Speaker announced that copies of the bill had been made available for the members in the lobby and also on the official website.
The House immediately plunged into chaos, leading to another adjournment. Within minutes of collecting the copies, Seemandhra MLAs began burning and tearing up the bill. At the media point, YSR Congress legislators burnt copies of the bill and were immediately confronted by a group of Telangana members, leading to a scuffle.
Later the Seemandhara MLAs staged a dharna in front of the Speaker’s office. At this stage, TRS, BJP, CPI, TDP and Congress members from Telangana indulged in a verbal spat and came close to exchanging blows.
Nearly 35 Seemandhra TDP MLAs continued with their protest inside the House till late evening, charging that the assembly was not taken into confidence on tabling of the Bill. According to sources, the CM, who watched the proceedings on television , telephoned a minister and expressed shock over the Speaker’s ‘unilateral’ decision.
Reddy convened a meeting of about 20 Seemandhra ministers at his Camp Office on Monday night and is believed to have decided to prevent the assembly from functioning until a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee is called.