YSRCP general secretary Dadi Veerabhadra Rao on Thursday accused Legislative Council Chairman M.A. Shariff of committing constitutional impropriety by referring the Bills on decentralisation of capital and repeal of APCRDA to the select committee.
“The TDP members, who were in a majority in the Upper House, had neither served any notice as required nor sought any amendments for referring the Bills to the select committee. As per rules, the notice or amendments, if any suggested, should be printed and tabled in the Council for circulation,” Mr. Rao, a former Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, told reporters here.
For the first time in the history, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly N. Chandrababu Naidu sat in the VIP gallery with a view to bringing pressure on Mr. Shariff to give the ruling using his discretionary power, Mr. Rao alleged.
Instead, the Chairman should have referred the Bills to the joint select committee of the legislature, Mr. Rao opined.
Dig at Naidu
Mr. Naidu was determined to stall development in the State despite his party’s rejection in the elections, the YSRCP leader said.
“The action of Mr. Shariff and Mr. Naidu will force other States to debate on the relevance of the Upper House,” he remarked.
Stating that Mr. Naidu was successful in temporarily stalling the passage of the two Bills, he said the YSRCP would go ahead with the formation of the Legislative capital in Amaravati, Judicial capital in Kurnool and Executive capital in Visakhapatnam as early as possible.
Mr. Rao said the reason for decentralised development mooted by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was to remove the backwardness in the Rayalaseema and North Andhra regions.
Advice to TDP
He also asked the TDP leaders to open their voice against the “parochial and partisan” behaviour of Mr. Naidu and his determination to help all those allegedly involved in insider trading in Amaravati.
As part of insider trading, 760 acres was bought by nearly 800 white card holders, he said, and justified the reference of the scam to the Enforcement Directorate and the Income-Tax Department.
