Hyderabad, March 29 – Members of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the Telangana Assembly were suspended for two days for disrupting the proceedings.
Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar announced the suspension of 24 BRS members present in the House after a resolution moved by Legislative Affairs Minister D. Sridhar Babu was passed by voice vote.
The members of the main opposition party have been disrupting proceedings due to their demand that the House Committee investigate allegations of corruption and illegal mining against Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.
As soon as the House met for the day, the BRS members raised the issue and demanded the formation of a House Committee. They attempted to move an adjournment motion, but the Speaker disallowed it.
The BRS members entered the well of the House and raised slogans, disrupting the proceedings.
The government rejected the demand for a House Committee. Members of the ruling Congress party argued that since the government had already ordered a CB CID investigation into the alleged illegal mining in the state, which began in 2014, there was no need for a House Committee.
The issue led to heated exchanges between BRS and Congress members. Certain remarks made by BRS MLA Kaushik Reddy about Kadiyam Srihari drew strong protests from the treasury benches.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and ministers accused the BRS of disrupting the proceedings of the House. The Chief Minister called for the suspension of the BRS members. He also alleged that the BRS was insisting on a House Committee, as they wanted to blackmail the minister through a couple of members on the panel.
The Chief Minister asked the BRS members to provide any evidence they had to the CB CID.
As the repeated appeals by the Speaker to the BRS members to cooperate in the smooth functioning of the House yielded no response, the legislative affairs minister moved the resolution of their suspension from the House for two days.
BRS deputy leader in Assembly T. Harish Rao, party working president K.T. Rama Rao, former Ministers T. Srinivas Yadav, Jagdish Reddy and Gangula Kamalakar were among the BRS MLAs suspended from the House.
The BRS MLAs later staged a protest in the Assembly premises and accused the government of stifling the voice of the opposition.
The Budget session of the Assembly is scheduled to conclude on March 31.