He is also expected to accord legislative sanction to the Cabinet decision to include TSRTC employees in the rolls of the state government.
Published Aug 02, 2023 | 4:39 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 02, 2023 | 4:43 PM
Final session of second Telangana Assembly to be held for three days. (Official Website)
The last session of the second Assembly of Telangana, which begins on Thursday, 3 August, is likely to see Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao presenting a report card on the achievements of his government in the last four and a half years.
He is also expected to accord to legislative sanction the Cabinet decision on taking about 43,377 TSRTC employees on the rolls of the state government.
Usually, Assembly sessions are always stormy — more so in an election year. However, with the Opposition reduced to a minuscule and devoid of any leader who could stand up to the BRS chief, it is more than likely that it would turn out to be a KCR show.
Though the BJP’s Eatala Rajender and M Raghunandan Rao have the ability to put the ruling party on the mat, they would not be able to hurt the BRS — except maybe causing some pin-pricks — because the saffron party’s strength is just three in the House.
The Congress, too, would not be able to do anything despite the lone ranger Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka — who has positioned himself as a chief-ministerial candidate — putting up a spirited fight. The reason: The party has no more than five MLAs in the Assembly.
As the BRS has the brute strength of 102 seats in the 119-member House, it is expected to be able to steamroll any resistance in the likelihood of the Opposition raking up the issues of the Dharani portal, the ambitious ₹60,000-crore metro rail project to be taken up in Hyderabad in the next three-four years, and lapses in handing over flood relief to victims of recent rains.
The Opposition is already looking at the Cabinet decision to take the TSRTC employees on government rolls through a lens of suspicion.
The BJP has said that the government intends to merge the TSRTC into the government only with the intent to sell away the corporation’s valuable properties while sugarcoating the decision as a measure to reward its employees.
Meanwhile, the state government is busy preparing the bill for recognising the staff of the TSRTC as government employees.
Transport Minister Puvvada Nageswara Rao who was involved in the exercise, has more or less completed the assignment. He is likely to introduce the bill in the Assembly.
The TSRTC has 96 bus depots. It owns 6,415 buses and hires another 2,766. The corporation operates the buses for a distance of 32.5 lakh km per day.
The state government is keen on discussing the bills that had been rejected or returned for more clarification by the Governor.
The state government which is seething inwardly over the Governor’s “audacity” in returning the bills or referring some of them to the President, wants to have a thorough discussion on them and using the occasion wants to expose the BJP’s game plan of creating problems to the state government.
BRS working president and Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) recently said once the bills are sent again to the Governor after the discussion in the Assembly, there would be no alternative left for the Governor but to give her assent.
The Governor also took objection to the tone and tenor of KTR for imputing political motives to her for returning the bills and said that she sent them back because she wanted some clarifications. She was very particular that nothing should be read between the lines.
The following are the bills, either cleared, returned or rejected, or sent to the President of India
