Andhra Pradesh   

Opposition ready for onslaught on YSR Govt.

Special Correspondent

A.P. Assembly monsoon session begins today

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly will be turned into a virtual fortress by the police out of security concerns but inside the House the Government will have to fight its political battles rather alone during the brief monsoon session beginning on Thursday.

Almost all political parties are determined to take the Government to task on the issues of tardy flood relief operations, land acquisition for the Outer Ring Road (ORR) project in Hyderabad "favouring the rich" and its poor response to the outbreak of chikungunya in epidemic proportion.

Outside, an unprecedented number of 1,000 policemen will stand guard in the wake of increased threat perceptions.

Indications of the shape of things to come were available on Wednesday after an all-party meeting convened by the CPI (M) to discuss alleged irregularities in the ORR project. The TDP also held a strategy session of its MLAs and later a Polit Bureau meeting. It resolved to raise three more issues — rise in prices of essential items, alleged misdeeds of the Congress during the panchayat elections and `backdoor attempts' to bring in public sector reforms.

The ruling party has collected enough ammunition to fight the TDP such as its failure to fully protect the massive Srisailam dam during the floods in 1998. It is also collecting data on land alienations during the TDP regime without paying compensation to the affected farmers.

Insiders' criticism

Ahead of the session, the Congress has attracted criticism from its own MLAs — P. Janardhan Reddy and M. Sashidhar Reddy — on ORR project and on enhancing the capacity of Pothireddypadu head regulator "at the expense of interests of Telangana." But, much to its relief, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh on Wednesday endorsed the Government's decisions on these issues.

Controversial GO

The scrapping of the controversial GO No.5 on PSU reforms and the promise of coming out with a policy for land alienation are expected to help the ruling party save a few blushes. In order to wrest the initiative from the Opposition, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has asked his party MLAs to raise important issues themselves.

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