Hyderabad, Sept.21 (NSS): The first meeting of the PAC was held in the Telangana Assembly Committee Hall under the chairmanship of Arikepudi Gandhi. The meeting was marked by confusion due to questions from BRS party members. Subsequently, the BRS members staged a walkout from the meeting.
The meeting was attended by assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar, Council Chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy, Minister Sridhar Babu, MLC Jeevan Reddy, MLA Yennam Srinivas Reddy, Revuri Prakash Reddy, Chikkudu Vamsi Krishna, BRS members Prashanth Reddy, Gangula Kamalakar, Banu Prasad Rao, Satyavati Rathod, and L Ramana.
During the meeting, BRS MLAs Prashant Reddy and Gangula Kamalakar questioned as to how PAC Chairman Arikepudi Gandhi was appointed while addressing State legislative Affairs Minister Sridhar Babu. They also inquired about the number of nominations received for the PAC chairman’s post. In this context, they protested against the Congress decision and subsequently walked out of the meeting.
Later, BRS MLA Prashant Reddy told the media, “We are not getting any answers to our questions in the PAC… that’s why we staged a walkout. The Speaker is not responding to our questions. All that legislative affairs minister Sridhar Babu is doing talking. They are afraid that we will expose their wrongdoings. If Gandhi is with the BRS, why is he not coming to our LP office?
“The PAC Chairmanship was given to someone who joined the Congress party from the BRS party. We did not nominate Gandhi from our party. What happened to the nomination submitted by Harish Rao? How did Gandhi get nominated? We need to know if his selection was according to election or selection criteria,” he said. Reddy made it clear that the PAC was crucial in a democratic system and added that it audits every rupee on behalf of the people.
“The Congress government did not consider the Opposition from our party. They asked us to submit five names according to our number of members. We submitted five names, but Gandhi’s name is not among them. Yet, how was Gandhi given the position,” he asked.
Reddy said in 2014, although the Congress party did not have the status of the Opposition party in Parliament, yet they were given the Opposition party status. K.C. Venugopal was made the Chairman of the Parliamentary PAC. This happened at the suggestion of the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. In 2014, we also gave the PAC position to Congress party in Telangana. In 2018, MIM had more MLAs than Congress. In 2018, since MIM was the single largest party, Akbaruddin was given the PAC Chairman position. It is a false statement that Sridhar Babu asked for the PAC Chairman’s post in 2018,” he commented.
Another BRS MLA, Gangula Kamalakar, stated that their argument was that Gandhi was given the PAC Chairman position without any nomination. Commenting on the issue of the defected MLAs of the party, he said the Assembly Secretary should make a decision in accordance with the High Court ruling. “Initially, we filed a case against the three MLAs, who changed the parties. We will implicate the others also. The High Court said it would review the Speaker’s decision,” he commented.
