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Telangana: BJP MLAs stage walkout amid Speaker row
A Pro-tem Speaker is appointed to administer the oath of office to the newly elected MLAs in the first post-poll sitting of the assembly to preside over the voting and election of the new Speaker
The first session of the new Telangana legislative assembly began on a stormy note on Saturday after all eight Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members, who won in the recently held elections, refused to take oath to protest against the appointment of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi as Pro tem Speaker of the House. Owaisi was administered the oath of office by Governor Tamilisai Soundararjan at Raj Bhavan on Saturday.
A Pro-tem Speaker is appointed to administer the oath of office to the newly elected MLAs in the first post-poll sitting of the assembly to preside over the voting and election of the new Speaker. As per the protocol, a senior legislator in the House is appointed as the Pro-tem Speaker till a Speaker is elected. Owaisi is the senior-most legislator, having won the Chandrayangutta constituency six times. The BJP, however, accused the ruling Congress of “neglecting” the senior candidates for the post and of defying the existing tradition of the House.
“When there are other senior leaders in the new House, why should they pick an AIMIM legislator to do the honour? We will not take oath in front of a person (Akbaruddin Owaisi) who made derogatory anti-Hindu comments in the past,” BJP legislator Raja Singh asked.
Union minister and state BJP president G Kishan Reddy, too, said: “The BJP opposes the appointment of AIMIM’s Akbaruddin Owaisi as Pro Tem Speaker as per an understanding (of Congress) with AIMIM.”
“Because of the violation of the legislative Assembly’s rules, we are opposing the appointment of the AIMIM person as the Pro Tem Speaker. Therefore, our members are boycotting taking oaths with him in the chair,” he added.
“The Congress only has a slight majority. Thus, they have made Akbaruddin Owaisi the Pro tem Speaker. We want a different pro-tem speaker to conduct the Speaker elections. We will tell the same to the governor now,” he added.
The AIMIM, which has seven members in the new assembly, has ignored the BJP’s allegations, while the Congress reminded the opposition party that it was the governor who appointed the Pro tem Speaker.
“The BJP should ask governor (Tamilisai Soundararajan) about the appointment as the order came from the governor. The BJP MLAs are unnecessarily creating confusion,” party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.
Meanwhile, state Congress spokesperson Kiran Kumar Reddy said that matter of appointing the pro tem speaker was related to the Constitution. “We don’t have to polarise a community to survive in politics,” he said.
Congress won an absolute majority in Telangana for the first time, winning 64 of 119 seats. State Congress chief Revanth Reddy, who won by a margin of 32,532 votes in Kodangal against BRS’s Patnam Narender Reddy, was appointed as the chief minister on December 5.
CM launched two schemes as part of six poll ‘guarantees’
Chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday rolled out two of the six poll guarantees promised by the Congress ahead of elections — free bus travel for women and health insurance of ₹10 lakh to the poor. The launch coincides with the birthday of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The free bus ride scheme, christened as “Mahalakshmi”, replicates a similar initiative launched by the Congress government in neighbouring Karnataka.
Under the scheme, girls, women across ages and transgenders can travel anywhere in Telangana in the state-owned transport corporation buses. The move is expected to cost ₹3,000 crore per year to the state exchequer.
“We are excited about this benefit being extended to us. My monthly travel expenditure by bus comes to more than ₹1,400. I will be able to save this money now,” said Sowmya Latha, a school teacher from the city.
An engineering student, Swapna, said she did not apply for a seasonal bus pass this time because she knew about the imminent launch of the scheme. “I will now be able to save ₹400 per month. This will surely go towards my pocket money,” she said gleefully.
“This initiative is a blessing for people like me. I travel by the city bus twice a week to take my sick child to hospital. This costs me more than ₹600 per month,” said Vijayalakshmi who took the free bus ride to the children’s hospital in Punjagutta area in the city.
The managing director and vice-chairman of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) VC Sajjanar said the possible revenue loss to the corporation was expected to be around ₹3,000 crore per year.
The government will have to compensate the TSRTC for the revenue loss. The autonomous Corporation is already reeling under accumulated losses of ₹6,000 crore.
The corporation now plies around 6,600 buses in the state, covering a stretch of 13 lakh kilometres every day, with its ticket sales generating a revenue of nearly ₹14 crore per day. “We are planning to add more buses to take our fleet size to around 7,200,” Sajjanar said.
The officials of the transport department say that the free ride scheme could see a jump in the number of female passengers in the months ahead, similar to the trend witnessed in Karnataka.
Travel in interstate buses will be free for the beneficiaries up to the borders of Telangana State. “The state government will reimburse TSRTC for the chargeable fares that would have been collected based on the actual distance travelled by women passengers,” an official release from the Corporation said.
Plans are also underway to develop a software-based “Mahalakshmi” smart card, providing a seamless and efficient mode of availing the benefits of the scheme in due course.
The second scheme announced by the new CM is “Rajiv Arogyasree”, under which the poor would get financial coverage of ₹10 lakh.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister recalled that it was on this day in 2009 that the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre had announced the formation of separate Telangana state.
“The entire credit for realising the statehood dream goes to Sonia Gandhi. It is only fitting that on her birthday we are launching the Mahalakshmi scheme for women. We will strive to make Telangana an enduring symbol of welfare and social justice,” he said.
