Andhra Pradesh   

Parliament go-ahead for A.P. Council Bill

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Parliament gave its consent to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Bill seeking to revive the Upper House in the State with the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday approving it by 85-35 votes.

While the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal supported the revival proposal, the Left parties and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) opposed it.

The Bill provides for a 90-member Council. Local bodies and Legislative Assembly would elect 31members each with the State Governor nominating 12 members. The remaining would be elected from graduates and teachers constituencies.

Opposing the Bill, P. Madhu (CPI-M), himself from Andhra Pradesh, drew attention to the expenditure on the proposed Council, and felt it was meant to accommodate the politically unemployed. On the other hand, Kripal Parmar from the main opposition party said Andhra Pradesh was a big State and the Council could accommodate unrepresented sections of society. Supporting the Bill, T. Subbarami Reddy (Congress), also from A.P., said the Legislative Council was functioning well but the late N. T. Rama Rao had abolished it.

`No purpose'

Alladi P. Rajkumar (TDP) opposed the Bill as the Council would serve no purpose. This was indicated by the fact that only five States had bicameral legislatures.

In Tamil Nadu, M. G. Ramachandran had abolished the Legislative Council and N. T. Rama Rao had emulated the example.

R Chandra Shekar Reddy (TDP) also opposed the revival, and said the reason was that the Congress wanted to undo NTR's action.

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