Andhra Assembly to resume budget session from today

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly will resume its Budget session from Monday after a gap of two-and-a-half months to pass the Appropriation Bill for the 2013-14 financial year.

The 12 Department-Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) discussed the Rs. 1.61 lakh crore Budget proposals, presented to the Assembly on March 18, over the last month and submitted their reports to Speaker Nadendla Manohar. The House, which is expected to sit for at least eight working days, will now consider the DRSCs` reports before approving the annual budget. This was the first time that DRSCs were constituted in the state Legislature to study the Budget proposals in detail and make necessary recommendations, as otherwise the House was not getting to discuss them. The House was constantly disrupted on the Telangana issue during the first round of the Budget session between March 13 and 26 though a short-duration discussion on power crisis and even Telangana was taken up before the vote-on-account budget was approved for the first quarter. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti is determined to raise the statehood issue yet again when the Assembly resumes its business for the remainder of the Budget session. Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu, who could not attend the first part of the Budget session in March because of his Vastunna Meekosam foot march, will lead his legislators in cornering the Kiran Kumar Reddy government on a host of issues ranging from power crisis, scandals in the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission, farmers` problems, among others. The ruling Congress, which survived a no-confidence motion on March 15, now enjoys only a "technical" majority with 146 members following the disqualification of nine of its MLAs yesterday, as the effective strength of the House reduced to 278. PTI