State Legislative Assembly adjourned over liquor scam

The liquor scam continued to dominate the budget session of the State Legislative Assembly on Monday.

The House was adjourned twice for brief periods and then for the whole day following stalling of proceedings by the Telugu Desam Party demanding dismissal of Prohibition and Excise Minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana.

As soon as the House met on Monday at 9 am, the TDP members raised slogans expressing dissatisfaction over the State Government's reply on liquor syndicate issue. They demanded another discussion and immediate dismissal of ministers, who are alleged to have received bribe from the liquor syndicate.

CPI floor leader G Mallesh too gave an adjournment motion seeking discussion on the ACB report on liquor syndicate. CPI (M) floor leader J Ranga Reddy gave an adjournment motion on NREGS.

Speaker Nadendla Manohar disallowed all the three adjournment motions. The Speaker said that the TDP members could raise the issue in a different form as the House has already debated it for nine hours on Friday.

Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu also tried in vain to convince the TDP members to resume their seats and allow the regular business in the House. However, the opposition MLAs continued to create uproar in the House forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for half-an-hour.

Similar scenes were noticed when the House re-assembled at 10.25 am. On Speaker's instructions Government Whip Dronamraju Srinivas initiated general discussion on the budget. However, the TDP MLAs rushed to the Speaker’s podium raising slogans demanding dismissal of ministers and judicial enquiry into the liquor scam. After five minutes of din, the Speaker adjourned the House again for half-an-hour.

The House could not take up regular business after it re-assembled again at 12.10 pm. The din and uproar continued for about 20 minutes and finally Deputy Speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikaramarka adjourned the House for the day.