AP Assembly Speaker names heads of department standing panels

The Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly tonight appointed Chairpersons of the Department- Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) that were supposed to deliberate on the annual budget proposals and submit reports to the House.
The decision comes four weeks after the first half of the Budget session of the state legislature was adjourned.
The dozen-strong DRSCs, a unique experiment by the Speaker in the history of AP Legislature, were modelled on the Standing Committees in Parliament.
Speaker Nadendla Manohar has appointed legislators from the Opposition parties as heads of some of the DRSCs.
Manohar told PTI that a lot of effort went into the constitution of DRSCs right from their conception.

He said orientation programmes were conducted for the legislators on the role and responsibilities of DRSCs while the legislature staff were also imparted necessary training.
The DRSCs would now discuss the budget proposals for FY 2013-14 and submit their recommendations to the House. The House would then consider the recommendations before the Appropriation Bill is passed for the entire fiscal.
Following are the DRSCs with their heads: Standing Committee on Welfare (Athram Sakku), Infrastructure Development-I (Dayakar Rao), Infrastructure Development-II ( A Narsa Reddy), Human Resources (Satyanarayana Raju), Urban Development (M Vijaya Prasad), Rural Development (K Yadava Reddy), Revenue (G V Seshu), Employment Generation (Mastan Rao), Agriculture (K Sudhakar), Health (Vanga Geeta), Forests and Environment (R Reddappa Reddy) and Irrigation (P Kista Reddy).