The Hindu : Front Page : Council poll to dominate session

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 11, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Council poll to dominate session

Special Correspondent

Governor likely to address Assembly twice; parties finalising strategies

FACELIFT: Preparations being made for the Assembly session beginning on Monday.

HYDERABAD: The budget session of the Assembly that begins on Monday is likely to be dominated by the Council elections following the recent announcement of polls to the Upper House by the Election Commission.

Polling will be held for 75 Council seats on March 17, the election process completed by March 26 and the House constituted the following day.

Governor Rameshwar Thakur will be addressing the Assembly twice, the budget session on its opening day, and a joint session with the Council towards the last week of March.

The ruling Congress as well as opposition parties are busy honing their strategies for the six-week long session The Opposition is set to attack the Government on contentious issues like takeover and distribution of Government-assigned lands, the actual landholdings of Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who has already given away more than 1200 acres, the poor budgetary allocation for social welfare, implementation of GO 610, erratic power supply to farmers and the capacity of Pothireddipadu head regulator.

The agreement signed recently between the State Government and Jurong India to establish the Odyssey Science City in Anantapur District at a cost of over Rs.1 lakh crores is bound to see the TDP and the Congress members lock horns. The TDP has demanded a CBI probe into the deal alleging that some Congress leaders are partners in the project.

GO 610 issue

The implementation of GO 610 is sure to raise the temperature if the heated exchanges between members of the House Committee from Andhra and Telangana regions on Friday is any indication.

To pre-empt the opposition onslaught on welfare, the Government has raised the income limit from Rs.69,000 to Rs.1 lakh as eligibility for giving scholarships to tribal students. It has also announced that all eligible BC students would be given post-matriculation scholarships and that a sum of Rs.300 crores would be allocated for the purpose.

Price rise of essential commodities is another factor that the ruling party has to contend with. The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) is planning to counter the argument on neglect of Telangana with statistics.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page