TDP MLAs to take up padayatra today

Hyderabad, July 23 :-

   The budget session of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly beginning here on Friday is expected to be a stormy affair with the Opposition parties seeking to buttonhole the Government on a host of public issues, even as Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy appealed to them to cooperate in ensuring the smooth functioning of the House.

In a bid to project a unified stand and mount pressure on the Government on various issues, the main Opposition, the Telugu Desam Party, announced that it would have floor coordination with the Left and other parties.

Spiralling price rise of essential commodities, governments failure to project illegal irrigation projects taken up by Karnataka and Maharashtra on Godavari and Krishna rivers in parliament would be the Opposition’s agenda.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has trained its guns against Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to infuse confidence among party cadres.

To project these issues in the assembly session, the TDP MLAs would launch Padayatra from NTR Garden.

In a strategic move to pre-empt the Opposition from stealing the thunder, the ruling Congress also planned to seek debate on important issues such as soaring pulse prices and illegal irrigation projects taken up by Karnataka and Maharashtra on Godavari and Krishna rivers.

The Chief Minister instructed the ruling party legislators to be present in full strength and effectively rebut criticism. He urged the Opposition not to disrupt the daily agenda by pressing for adjournment motions and advised them not to raise subjects which would merely get them political mileage and not serve public cause.

Meanwhile, the TDP urged the Speaker to allow adjournment motions before the question hour, while the CPI wanted it to be the other way round.