Andhra assembly remains paralysed over Telangana issue

The Andhra Pradesh assembly remains paralysed over the Telangana issue, with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) stalling the house for the third consecutive day Thursday.

For the third day in a row, Speaker N. Manohar adjourned the house without any business being done.

A day before the "chalo assembly" called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), the TRS and other parties staged protests over the arrests of hundreds of people across Telangana.

The speaker adjourned the house twice for half-an-hour each and third time for the day as the agitating legislators continued slogan shouting near his podium, making it impossible for him to take up the listed agenda.

As soon as the house met for the day, the speaker announced that he was rejecting notices for adjournment motions given by various opposition parties.

The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) wanted to raise the issue of price rise. TRS, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) demanded that the government give permission for Friday's march, and stop the arrests.

The TRS legislators got up from their seats and surrounded the speaker's podium. The speaker's repeated appeals to the members to resume their seats and cooperate with him in the smooth running of the house failed to restore order.

Amid slogan-shouting by TRS members, the speaker urged the floor leaders of all parties to come to his chamber for a meeting, and adjourned the house for half an hour. The meeting failed to break the impasse.

When the house re-assembled, the speaker had to adjourn it again for half-an-hour. There was no change in the situation when the house met again, forcing the speaker to adjourn the house till Friday.

To protest the arrests of Telangana activists, the BJP legislators came to the house with their hands chained.

The assembly was adjourned without any business on Tuesday and Wednesday as TRS stalled proceedings, demanding that the house pass a resolution for the formation of a separate Telangana state.

Earlier, TDP legislators staged a novel protest against the price rise by cooking food in front of the assembly building at Gun Park.

TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu said the prices of essential commodities had gone up by 300 times after the Congress came to power, despite the promise made by it before elections that it would check the price rise in 100 days.