Andhra assembly passes budget amid din

Amid the pandemonium over Telangana issue, the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly Friday passed the state budget without any debate.

Speaker N. Manohar announced the passing of the appropriation bill by a voice vote and adjourned the house sine die.

Even on the last day of the 20-day budget session, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) stalled the proceedings, demanding that the house pass a resolution for carving out separate Telangana state.

As the bedlam continued after three adjournments, the speaker asked Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy to move the appropriation bill and announced its passage by a voice vote. This will enable the government to spend Rs.1.38 lakh crore during 2013-14.

The slogan-shouting TRS and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislators tore placards and flung the pieces towards the chair. The TDP wanted a debate on the alleged land dealings involving some TRS leaders.

Raising slogans of 'Jai Telangana', the TRS members surrounded the speaker's podium after he rejected their adjournment motions and also those of TDP and other opposition parties. The repeated appeals both by the speaker and Legislative Affairs Minister D. Sridhar Babu failed to restore order in the house.

The speaker adjourned the house thrice but when the ruckus continued, he adjourned the house sine die.

The second phase of the budget session, which began June 10, saw no debate on any issue and even on the reports of Departmentally Related Standing Committees (DRSCs), constituted for the first time in the state's history to make budgetary allocation for various departments.

The house passed some bills and took up listed business only on three days when TRS members were suspended from the house. The budget demands of all 40 departments were passed without virtually any debate on Thursday.

The TDP criticized the manner in which the speaker conducted the proceedings. TDP leader E. Dayakar Rao said if the speaker failed to call another session to debate people's issues, the party would move a no-confidence motion against him. Rao alleged that the government ran away from debate on burning issues.