The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Congress MLAs take on ZP chief at meeting

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 02, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress MLAs take on ZP chief at meeting

By Our Staff Reporter

NELLORE, DEC. 1. The Zilla Parishad general meeting held here on Wednesday witnessed the incident of two Congress MLAs, Anam Vivekananda Reddy and Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, taking on their party colleague and ZP Chairman, P. Chenchal Babu, and pulling him up at the ZP meeting.

Just before the meeting was about to commence, Mr. Vivekananda Reddy wanted to know why the meeting was held today, knowing fully well that Parliament had commenced its session. The convening of the ZP meeting on the same day had deprived the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Panabaka Lakshmi, and others an opportunity to take part in the meet. He asked the Chairman whether he was not aware of such guidelines.

`Lean agenda'

The MLA also expressed shock over what he described as a `lean agenda,' with only two subjects and wanted to know whether there were no worthy subjects to be discussed by the members. He was also upset that he expressed ire about the convening of the meetings only on the last day of the stipulated three-month period. He was sore that in view of today's meeting, the AIDS rally and meeting had to be cut short.

Mr. Ramanarayana Reddy drew the attention of the Chief Executive Officer, S. Viswanatha Reddy, as to how the sessions of Parliament are fixed in advance and dates intimated accordingly. He wanted to know the reasons for such irrelevant action in convening the ZP meeting on the same day. The CEO in his reply claimed that at the time of sending notices about the meeting to members, there was no information about Parliament session. This drew a protest from Mr. Ramanarayana Reddy, who questioned the CEO's statement and warned that he will move a privilege motion against the official for misleading members. He wanted a clarification from the Collector, B. Rajasekhar.

Collector clarifies

The Collector said that Ms. Panabaka Lakshmi spoke to him on the convening of the meeting when Parliament was in session and she was informed that it was statutory to have the ZP meet for every three months. Also once a notification was issued, it would be difficult to annul it. The Collector informed that the reason for holding the meeting on Wednesday was also due to the fact that the Legislature Committee on Welfare of SCs was touring the district and incidentally the Chairman, N. Subramanyam, happened to be the Sullurpet MLA in Nellore district. He was also briefed about the circumstances of the meeting. The official said that henceforth such a situation will not arise and the sentiments of the members would be respected.

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