Harish Rao Writes Open Letter To Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar On Assembly
Hyderabad: Siddipet MLA Harish Rao congratulated Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on the occasion of completing two years of his tenure as the Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly. He wrote an open letter to the Speaker expressing his concern over the serious failures and violations of rules in the functioning of the Assembly during these two years. He exposed the mistakes being made in protecting the prestige of the Assembly and the spirit of the Constitution. He expressed his displeasure over the significant reduction in the working days of the Legislative Assembly. He stated that although the House is supposed to be held for as many days as necessary for the activities of the House as per Rule 12, it is not happening. He also said that frequent and sudden adjournment of the House without proper reasons is against Rule 13 relating to the timing of the House and Rule 16 relating to the methods of adjournment.
Harish Rao expressed his concern that the rules are being violated in the conduct of the main Question Hour and Zero Hour, which are the time for members to confront the government on public issues in the House. He said that especially the rules from Rules 38 to 52, as well as Rules 53 to 62, are not being followed. He said that the standing questions that are directly answered by the ministers in the House are being prevented from being discussed, thereby violating the right to question time provided by Rule 38. Moreover, he said that denying and shortening the opportunity for members to discuss a question in depth and seek clarification from the government is a violation of the main purpose of Rule 50. He clarified that shortening the Zero Hour, which is the time for immediate mention of public issues, is also a violation of the rights of the House.
In addition, the failure to answer unstarted questions.. According to Rule 39, written answers to these should be presented in the House. Also, according to Rule 41, those answers should be provided to the members within the specified time. But Harish Rao expressed concern that due to non-compliance with these rules, the House lacked accountability. Harish Rao said that it was very sad that House committees were not formed in the Assembly for the last two years. He said that although committees were strictly required to be appointed according to the Assembly rules (Rules 196, 198), the government was not doing that work. He said that Rule 227 clearly states that even after the Assembly sessions are over, the work of the committees should not stop, but due to the absence of actual committees, there was no oversight over the functioning of the government.
