Assembly passed historic bills, says Speaker

Amaravati: Assembly Speaker T Sitaram expressed satisfaction over the House passing several crucial bills to benefit the poor and downtrodden during the budget session. He maintained that during his stint as public representative, MLA, minister or even in the opposition in the past for a long time, he never saw such historic bills getting passing in the House after a thorough debate.

In an interview to The Hans India on completion of budget session of Assembly, on Tuesday, he said though it was first time for him as a Speaker, he conducted the session effectively. He further added that in future, the Assembly will be conducted in a more refined manner.

"This is the only session in the recent past which has extensive discussion. All the financial bills were discussed upon at length and there was no guillotine of billsin . Even Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy asked to conduct sufficient discussion on all the demands," he said.

Reacting on the developments in the House with respect to the opposition TDP, he said, "I don't have any personal rivalry with Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu. But, we have to maintain decency, decorum and conventions of the House and everyone must follow them in Assembly.

There are several procedures for demanding the government on public interested issues. If the opposition did not get convinced with the answer given by the government, then it must come in another format. I always suggested them to come in alternative formats to question the government or to get more clarity on the issues.

But, they were not allowing the business in the House. That was not good." He said that he would never undermine the opposition role in the House, because of that reason only he had given more time to the TDP leaders.