Hyderabad: In a sensational move, the Telangana Legislative Assembly Rules Committee has decided to bring a rule that entitles the House to suspend for a year any member who engages in grave disorderly behaviour during the Governor’s address.
The committee at its meeting on Monday, presided over by Speaker S. Madhusudana Chary, decided to amend rules to ensure that solemn occasions like the Governor’s address are not disrupted.
The Maharashtra Assembly had suspended some members for two years when they obstructed the Governor's address, the committee noted. Normally, the Governor addresses the House once a year for about an hour.
During the Telangana agitation, Legislative Affairs minister T. Harish Rao along with TD member A. Revanth Reddy and others created a scene when Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan was addressing the joint session, throwing papers and books at him. They went up to the dais and removed the chair, resulting in Council Chairman Dr A. Chakrapani suffering injuries.
The committee decided to bring a rule to consider strong punishment for any Member who makes wild allegations against the government without substantiating it.
The quantum of punishment will be decided in due course. It also decided to take action against members who bring pamphlets, placards and other materials into the House to protest against government policies and programmes.
BJP member Dr K. Laxman said that Opposition members depend on newspaper reports while raising issues, including corruption and imposing such restrictions was improper.
"If such punishments are awarded it will only create panic among Opposition in discharging their duty to raise people's problems," Dr Laxman said.
When some committee members raised the issue of frequent violation of protocol for MLAs, Mr Chary assured that he would constitute the Privileges Committee with Deputy Speaker within a week. It was also decided to hold evening sittings whenever the House feels the need for a detailed debate.
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