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Congressmen force AP governor to flee House

Unruly scenes were witnessed in the Andhra Pradesh assembly on the opening day of the budget session today, with Opposition Congress members stalling the proceedings, and forced Governor C Rangarajan to abruptly end his customary address and leave the House.

The Congress members, waving black flags, raised slogans and tore up copies of the governor's address. A copy of the address, thrown by a protesting Congress member, almost hit Dr Rangarajan.

The governor could read less than a paragraph from his 36-page address. As the noisy scenes continued, Dr Rangarajan ended his speech by reading the concluding para: "During the session, you (members) will be considering the business brought before you, including the budget for 1998-99. I wish your deliberations all success."

Even as the governor was leaving the House, slogan- shouting Congress members were seen rushing towards him and trying to break the security cordon. However, their slogans could not be heard in the din.

A stunned Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his ministerial colleagues could only be mute spectators to the unruly scenes.

As soon as the governor began his address, the Congress members were on their feet and started trooping towards the podium, raising slogans.

After abruptly ending his speech in less than two minutes, perhaps the shortest-ever address by a governor to the state assembly, Dr Rangarajan briskly climbed down the steps of the podium escorted by his aide-de-camp and others, and left the house.

Later, addressing a news conference, the Congress members, led by their leader P Janardhana Reddy, justified their action in the house, saying they did not recognise the address by the governor when the Telugu Desam Party government had lost the people's mandate in the recent Lok Sabha poll. (The ruling TDP won 12 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state, against the 17 it had won in the last election.)

They demanded that the TDP seek a fresh mandate since Naidu had claimed during the election campaign that the poll would be a referendum on his government's performance.

At a separate press conference, ministers T Devender Goud, A Madhava Reddy, N Janardhana Reddy, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, S V Subba Reddy and P Aruna and chief whip Chandrasekhar Reddy condemned the Congress members's action in the House, saying they had insulted the governor and demanded an apology from them.

The CPI and the CPI-M also condemned the Congress members's behaviour, while NTR-TDP leader Lakshmi Parvathi and BJP leader Baddam Bal Reddy described the happenings in the House as 'unfortunate'.

Among the members who attended the House today were Housing Minister M Rajaiah, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in last month's poll from Siddipet, and P V Ranga Rao, son of former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, who had wrested the Hanamkonda assembly seat from the ruling TDP in the recent by-election.

In his address, Dr Rangarajan said the government was determined to increase the installed capacity of power from 6,254 MW to 10,000 MW by the turn of the century. Work on thermal power projects with an installed capacity of 2,500 MW would commence during the current year and with the allocation of liquid fuels, a capacity addition of 1,500 MW was expected in the next two years.

Farmers were given nine hours's power supply for crop production despite constraints. In the future also, the interests of farmers would be protected, he added.

He said a comprehensive scheme for the development of backward areas, with special emphasis on education, health, communication and irrigation, had been drawn up for implementation during the next financial year.

UNI

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