Uttam slams TRS Govt over Pvt Universities Bill

Hyderabad : Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has slammed the TRS Government for passing the Private Universities Bill and introducing Panchayat Raj Amendment Bill in the State Legislative Assembly.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that it was highly unfortunate that the TRS Government has passed the Bill to facilitate setting up of private universities in the State without even having a meaningful debate. Similarly, the Panchayat Raj Bill has been introduced and likely to be passed in the Legislature on Thursday in the absence of main opposition Congress party. He said passing of these two Bills, without essential amendments, was apparently one of the main reasons why TRS Government suspended all Congress members from the House for the entire session.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said the protest by Congress members during the joint address of Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan was a minor issue which was blown out of proportion by the ruling party and at the instance of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao entire drama of "attack" on Council Chairman Swamy Goud was enacted. He said two Congress MLAs - Komatireddy Venkatreddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar were expelled from Assembly in an undemocratic manner. He said the main intention of TRS Government was to prevent Congress legislators from exposing its failures. Describing expulsion of two MLAs and suspension of remaining MLAs for entire session as totally unexpected, he strongly condemned the behaviour of Speaker S. Madhusudan Chary. He said that the ruling TRS did not show any respect towards the Constitution and democratic norms.

The TPCC chief said that the resignation of Advocate General D. Prakash Reddy was a slap on the face of TRS Government and by doing so he had refused to be a party to the wrong doings of KCR Government. He said that the Chief Minister was reportedly angry with the Advocate General who gave an assurance to the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad that video footage of alleged incident that took place in the Assembly during the Governor's speech would be submitted in a sealed cover. He said if KCR did nothing wrong, then why was he afraid of submitting the video footage before the court. He said denial of access to video footage clearly shows that the story of attack on Council Chairman was totally fabricated. He said people have been watching the behaviour of TRS Government and they would teach it a fitting lesson in next elections.

Meanwhile, Uttam Kumar Reddy informed that the Praja Chaitanya Bus Yatra Coordination Committee met at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday to finalise the second phase of bus yatra. Committee chairman and Leader of Opposition in Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir and other senior leaders including D.K. Aruna, Sampath Kumar, Balram Naik and others attended the meeting. He said that the first phase of bus yatra held from February 26 to March 8 was highly successful wherein 17 Assembly constituencies were covered.

The second phase of bus yatra will begin with a public meeting at Ramagundem on April 1. The next day, there will be another meeting at Peddappli at 6 PM. There will be public meetings at Manthani and Bhupalpalli on April 3; Station Ghanpur and Palakurthy on April 4; Narsampet on April 5; Parkal and Warangal West on April 6; Yellandu and Pinapaka on April 7; Dornakal and Mahabubabad on April 8; Bhadrachalam and Mulugu on April 9 and Wardhannapet (Congress workers meeting) on April 10 at 2 PM.