After spat in house,YSR wants assembly to stop live telecast

Hyderabad, Feb 11: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy Wednesday called for discontinuing live telecast of the proceedings of the state legislative assembly in view of the ugly incidents that took place earlier in the day.

His suggestion came after the house witnessed unruly scenes when the opposition legislators were suspended by the speaker for stalling the proceedings.

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), an ally of the ruling Congress party and some other legislators, supported the idea.

Speaker K.R.Suresh Reddy said he would take a decision after eliciting opinion of other legislators.

"A decision will be taken on the basis of opinion of majority of the legislators," he said.

The chief minister felt that the legislators' conduct was bringing disrepute to the house and the live telecast by various television channels was only adding to the problems.

The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has opposed the proposal and alleged that the chief minister wanted to stop the live telecast as the debate in the assembly was "exposing the acts of omissions and commissions of the government".

Earlier, the speaker had to stop live telecast of the proceedings when some opposition legislators came to blows with marshals. The incident took place when the speaker called marshals to bodily lift out the suspended members.

The speaker suspended legislators of four opposition parties when they stalled the proceedings to press their demand for a debate on the alleged financial irregularities by the companies owned by the chief minister's son.