The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Reservation issue rocks House

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Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Reservation issue rocks House

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JULY 23. The Assembly witnessed noisy scenes as soon as it met on Friday with the Telugu Desam and Left party members insisting on a discussion over the adjournment notice on the High Court stay of reservations for minorities.

The Speaker, K.R. Suresh Reddy, initially refused to entertain the plea as the matter was sub judice. The members stalled the question hour proceedings for an hour. It was only after Mr. Reddy agreed for a meeting of the floor leaders on the issue that the House began its regular business.

`Commitment' reiterated

In the midst of the furore, the Legislative Affairs Minister, K. Rosaiah, spoke briefly about the move to legalise the GO on reservations and added that the Government was committed to extending reservation to minorities.

Mr. Rosaiah said the Government did not want to disturb the existing system of reservations to other BC categories. The Government would talk to legal experts to remove impediments to the implementation of the GO, he said.

T. Devender Goud (TDP) accused the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, of announcing statutory backing to the GO even as the matter was sub judice. He agreed that the House could not go into the merits of the case at this stage. Mr. Goud said the TDP had always maintained that the reservations to minorities had legal hurdles. This Government was not sincere to overcome them, he added.

Akbaruddin Owaisi (MIM) demanded statutes to reservations for BCs, including minorities. He reminded that the Government had come out with a GO on reservations to minorities in 1994 also, but it was scrapped subsequently.

Contractors for irrigation

When the issue of pre-bid qualification of contractors for irrigation projects was taken up, the House witnessed uproarious scenes as the TDP members alleged that the Government guidelines suited only ten big contractors. Y. Ramakrishnudu asked why global tendering was not resorted to and alleged that there was no transparency in bidding.

The Major Irrigation Minister, Ponnala Laxmaiah, replied that the works were grounded "package-wise." Initially, the contractors were identified for packages in the range of Rs. 50 to 100 crores. Contractors for Rs. 200 - 400 crore packages would be selected in the next stage.

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