Hyderabad: Assembly speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on Sunday suspended 24 BRS MLAs from the House for two days of the ongoing budget session, after they refused to take their seats and allow the proceedings to continue smoothly. The MLAs continued to shout slogans, demanding either an inquiry by a House committee into alleged illegal mining by Raghava Constructions, or the removal of revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy from the cabinet.Those suspended included KT Rama Rao, T Harish Rao and Sabitha Reddy, among others. The assembly’s budget session is expected to conclude on Monday.Meanwhile, BRS MLAs Ch Malla Reddy, D Sudheer Reddy and Muta Gopal were absent during the incident and will be able to attend the remainder of the session. Furthermore, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy was also absent, as he was campaigning for Congress candidates in Keralam.Legislative affairs minister D Sridhar Babu moved the motion to suspend the 24 BRS members for two days or for the remainder of the budget session, stating that they had remained uncooperative despite requests from the chief minister, ministers, and the speaker to allow discussion on the budget.Chief minister A Revanth Reddy said that the govt was willing to hand over the illegal mining case to CBI if BRS has doubts about the CID probe. “Action will be taken against anyone found guilty, including Ponguleti,” the CM asserted. However, he ruled out Ponguleti’s resignation.The CM also accused the previous BRS govt of misusing the House committees. “The previous govt had constituted three House committees and used them to blackmail individuals, seize assets and engineer defections. The current demand for a House committee is intended to blackmail the revenue minister into regularising the land parcels they grabbed by misusing the Dharani portal,” Revanth alleged.He appealed to Harish Rao, KTR and members of all parties to submit any evidence they have to CID. “The House committee will not have the power to punish anyone. It will only submit a report, which the govt will then have to send to police,” he said.Revanth also alleged that the opposition leader, K Chandrasekhar Rao, has been avoiding assembly sessions because he has to ask the speaker, who belongs to the Dalit community, to speak in the House. “BRS has always been anti-Dalit. BRS members have also been humiliating the speaker by ignoring his requests to allow the House to function smoothly,” he alleged.Speaking to the media outside the assembly after being suspended, BRS members Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Harish Rao and others described the events as a “dark day for democracy” and said that “the House had become a Gandhi Bhavan.”Harish Rao questioned the impartiality of a CID probe involving a sitting minister. “That is why BRS demanded the removal of minister Ponguleti. CID inquiry was announced as a ploy to shield Ponguleti. On numerous occasions in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi has demanded a joint House committee. So why can’t the BRS do the same?” the BRS leader asked.Defending BRS, Harish Rao said KCR and the party have consistently supported Dalits and Adivasis, citing schemes such as Dalit Bandhu.“The CM has resorted to diversionary politics by accusing BRS of being anti-Dalit in order to save Ponguleti. Revanth himself admitted that Raghava Constructions had been issued notices, which proves that Ponguleti is at fault,” claimed Harish Rao.The BRS leader said that, rather than granting them the opportunity to speak about the issue of illegal mining, he had announced a CID inquiry.BOX:Those suspended are KTR, T Harish Rao, Gangula Kamalakar. Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Sabitha Indra Reddy, Vemula Prashant Reddy, G Jagadish Reddy, T Padma Rao, Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Padi Kaushik Reddy, Madhavaram Krishna Rao, Bandaru Laxma Reddy, Kova Laxmi, Anil Jadhav, K Manik Rao, Chinta Prabhakar, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, Marri Rajasekhara Reddy, V Sunitha Laxma Reddy, Kaleru Venkatesh, Vijayudu, K P Vivekanand, K Sanjay and G Mahipal Reddy.
