The deadlock in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly over the demand for constitution of a Joint Legislative Committee to probe land allotments continued for the fourth day on Monday, as both government and the opposition remained unrelenting.
Proceedings were adjourned twice this morning as main opposition TDP stuck to the demand that JLC be set up to probe land allotments in the last six years, while the government maintained that there was no provision for constitution of such a committee as per the rules.
Legislative affairs minister D. Sridhar Babu and major industries minister J. Geeta Reddy said the government was ready to make a statement in the House on the land allotments. "Let us discuss the issue based on the statement. You can raise any demand if you are not satisfied with the outcome of the discussion," Sridhar Babu told the TDP MLAs, who stormed the Speaker's podium holding placards.
Reddy said there was no question of accepting the demand for a JLC without a discussion in the House.
TDP deputy leader P. Ashoka Gajapathi Raju disputed Reddy's claim and said the government was accountable to the Assembly. "The government's collective responsibility to the Constitution has to be translated here. Hence, a JLC should be necessarily constituted," he said.