Amaravati: Council Chairman can't issue fatwa on House panels, says Buggana

Amaravati: Legislative affairs minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said Legislative Council Chairman Mohammed Ahmed Shariff can't constitute Select Committees for capital decentralisation and APCRDA repeal bills as it should be preceded by division on the floor of the Council. "The question of constituting Select Committees does not arise. Chairman cannot issue Fatwa (religions direction issued by Muslim clerics) in a democracy," he said in response to a question at a press conference at the Secretariat here on Thursday.

Referring to "some rumours" circulating on social media that the Council had constituted Select Committees on both APCRDA bill and on the three capitals bill, Rajendranath Reddy said, "The person in the Chair cannot make decisions according to his whims and fancies. He has to follow the rules and discharge his duties according to guidelines. To refer the bills to Select Committees, there must be a division in the House. But, it did not happen. The Chairman cannot exercise his discretionary powers without following the rules. No one can issue Fatwa, just because being in the Chair."

The minister for IT also denied news on social media which claimed a company in the Millenium Towers in Visakhapatnam was asked to shift from there by the government.

No instruction has been given by any department regarding the issue, he added. It was high time to take some preventive action against such false reports being circulated in the media because it was damaging for the administration itself, he said.