Assembly session: Oppn raring to grill govt

Hyderabad: The Assembly session starting Tuesday is likely to be stormy with opposition parties gearing up to corner the government on various issues, including the proposed redrawing of districts, MoUs on irrigation projects signed with Maharashtra and the distressed farm sector.
The assembly and council legislative sessions have been summoned to ratify the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill which the Centre wants state legislatures to adopt to enable it to roll out the new indirect tax regime by April next.Apart from passing the GST Bill, the Assembly is expected to take up the enactment of ordinances on endowment issues, bifurcation of Cyberabad police commissionerate and enhancement of value added tax in respect of certain commodities.
While both the Houses are scheduled to consider the GST Bill for ratification on Tuesday, the session is likely to last for two extra days. The business advisory committee (BAC) will meet on Tuesday to decide on the duration and agenda for the rest of the session. "So far, the main agenda of the session is to ratify the GST Bill. Other issues will be decided by the BAC," said Palla Rajeswar Reddy, government whip the LegislativeCouncil. The Opposition parties, however, want the session to be extended for at least 10 days so that the assembly and council can debate pressing issues, including the plight of farmers suffering crop losses due to a prolonged dry spell, controversy over the redesign of irrigation projects and the bilateral agreement signed by Telangana and Maharashtra on river water sharing and formation of new districts which is under process. Principal Opposition party Congress has plans to pin down the government on its failure to settle farm loan dues to banks at one go.
And the party also plans on taking the government task on the issue of distributing subsidy to the farmers of drought-hit mandals despite the Centre releasing Rs 900 crore towards relief. "The chief minister had promised the assembly during the last session that the government would settle third and fourth instalments of the farm loan waiver scheme. Leave alone settling the two final instalments, it has not even paid the third instalment fully. It has diverted the funds meant for input subsidies for farmers to pay contractors of schemes such as Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya," said a Congress legislator. The government's failure to spend on welfare schemes and its failure to fulfil promises on two-bed room houses for poor, three acres farm land for landless Dalits are among other issues the Congress wants raise in the Assembly.
The Congress legislative party ( CLP) met on Monday and passed a resolution that the party should demand a CBI probe into the slain gangster Nayeem case. The party, however, is in a bit of a quandary after CLP leader and Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy gave statements on the MoUs with Maharashtra and the Nayeem case which are in conflict with the party's official stand. Sources said Congress legislators took Jana Reddy to task during the CLP meeting for his incoherent statements because of which the party had to face embarrassment and ceded advantage to the ruling TRS.
Opposition parties are also expected to ask the government why agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy had to leave on a junket to United States when Telagnana farmers were deep in distress.
"It is unbecoming of the agriculture minister to go on a foreign trip when the standing crops have been badly bit by a dry spell during monsoon. Framers are not getting fresh crop loans, and they have been denied of crop insurance because of the government's failure to renew it in time. We want the House to debate this and other issues for which the session must last for at least 10 days," said Telangana BJP president K Laxman, who represents Musheerabad in the Assembly.
TDP leaders, who have accused the government of involvement in large scale irregularities on the pretext of redesigning of irrigation projects, want the Assembly to debate the recent agreement with Maharashtra on Godavari river water sharing and Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project. Party legislators said they would stage a protest in the House against arrest of the party leaders on Monday when they took out a rally to Jala Soudha in protest against the Telangana-Maharashra agreement.