Opposition protest against special officers

HYDERABAD: Cutting across party lines, opposition parties including Telugu Desam, BJP and the Left Parties staged a walked out from the Assembly here on Saturday protesting against appointment of special officers or persons-in-charge for mandal praja parishads (MPPs) and zilla praja parishads (ZPPs).Panchayat raj minister K Jana Reddy moved the bill to amend the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act 1994 which will enable the state government to appoint persons-in-charge up to six months without holding the local body elections.This bill will replace the earlier ordinance of the governor appointing person-in-charges. However, all the Opposition parties opposed the appointment of the persons-in-charge. The opposition members alleged that the government was unable to face the elections and deliberately postponing the elections to the local bodes.Demanding immediate elections to the local bodies of MPPs and ZPPs, the opposition members staged a walkout.Lok Satta MLA Jayaprakash Narayana pointed out that the amendment to the Panchayat Raj Act is against the spirit of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution. The amendment to the PR Act appointing persons-in-charge will not stand the scrutiny of court of law, he said. However, the Bill was passed after the entire Opposition staged a walkout.TDP member P Ashok Gajapati Raju said the bill was intended to delay the election process. It is a deeper conspiracy by the government against holding elections to the local bodies and wanted broader discussion on the issue, he said and added the party doesn't want the Bill to be passed in a haste.J Ranga Reddy of the CPM said that it is not proper on the part of the government to delay the local body elections and as a result the development has come to a standstill.BJP member Lakshminarayana said the delay in holding elections is against the spirit of the Constitution.Jana Reddy said that the government is keen on conducting the elections but since the  cases were pending in the court, the election were held up. Once the cases are cleared, the government will conduct the elections, he added. The minister said that the provisions for appointment of special officer akin to that of Section 143 of the APPRA 1994 do exist in the other Acts governing the municipalities and municipal corporations in the state.Meanwhile the House passed eight other Bills including Andhra Pradesh Rent Control Bill, AP Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks (Amendment) Bill, AP Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, Licensed Cultivators Bill, AP Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, AP (Telanagana Area) Abolition of Inam (Amendment) Bill, AP Advocates Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill and AP Advocates clerks Welfare Fund (Amendment Bill).