Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad today rejected an adjournment motion submitted by the BRS MLAs to discuss the Lagacharla incident in Kodangal where attempts to acquire land from farmers for a pharma company had snowballed into an attack on government officials. The BRS ridiculed the ruling party for choosing to discuss tourism policy instead of the plight of the arrested farmers. The BRS and AIMIM even walked out of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) alleging that the government was not clearly announcing the duration of the ongoing session.

BRS MLA T Harish Rao had moved an adjournment motion in the assembly to discuss the arrest of Lagacharla farmers. However, the Speaker did not admit the adjournment motion. BRS working president KT Rama Rao ridiculed the government for choosing to discuss the tourism policy instead of Lagacharla. “As the Telangana Assembly proposes to discuss ‘Tourism Policy’ the two specific areas where the Congress government has achieved remarkable progress in this sector are – Delhi tourism — more than 100 trips by the Chief Minister and all other ministers combined and jail tourism – 40 Kodangal farmers in jail.” As the BRS MLAs started to create an uproar, the Speaker adjourned the House till tomorrow. The BRS MLAs later staged a sit-in demonstration at the entrance for MLAs. They raised slogans against putting farmers in shackles. Accusing the chief minister of being vindictive, an angry KT Rama Rao said “Is Kodangal your father’s estate (jagir)?” The BRS will hold protests across the state tomorrow against the harassment faced by the Lagacharla farmers.

Advertisement

The BRS further alleged Harish Rao’s microphone was switched off while he was still speaking on the issue of sarpanches. The former finance minister demanded a proper timeline from the minister on clearing the pending bills. However, Panchayat Minister D Seethakka said, “This is not our doing. We inherited the pending Sarpanch bills from the BRS. It has been pending since 2014. Harish Rao did not resolve it earlier.” Later BRS MLAs walked out of the House in protest against the Congress government’s stance on clearing bills of sarpanches. They also accused the state finance minister of misleading the Assembly by claiming that the state’s debts were Rs7 lakh crores even though RBI records show it was only Rs3.89 crore. The Opposition party will also be moving a privilege motion against the deputy chief minister M Bhatti Vikramarka who handles the finance department

The animosity between the treasury benches and the Opposition was visible even in the BAC meeting as both the BRS and AIMIM walked out but not before a heated discussion took place on the T-shirts worn by Opposition party MLAs on the first day, accusing Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of having a nexus with Gautam Adani.