Earlier on Friday, the treasury benches had managed to prevent a discussion on the bill by raking up the videography issue of AAP MP Bhagwant Mann.
Rajya Sabha seems to be heading for further showdown as Congress on Tuesday protested vehemently when leader of the house Arun Jaitley virtually declared that the private member’s bill seeking special status for Andhra Pradesh was a money bill that cannot be passed by the upper house.
The stand-off on the special status to Andhra Pradesh has again cast shadows of uncertainty over the new GST bill that BJP government is keen to get cleared in the monsoon session. For the last three days Congress has been dmanding discussion and voting on their MP, KVP Ramachandra Rao’s bill to amend the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act and give special status to Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier on Friday, the treasury benches had managed to prevent a discussion on the bill by raking up the videography issue of AAP MP Bhagwant Mann.
On Tuesday, when deputy chairman P J Kurien tried to end a face-off between the Government and the Congress by ruling that the contentious Bill will be taken up for voting on Friday setting aside a resolution listed in the private member’s business that day, his ruling fell flat when Jaitley, said it was a money bill that cannot be passed by the Rajya Sabha at all as it involves the Centre giving more money to the
state.
Jaitley’s announcement was met with loud protests by Congress members who trooped into the well shouting -- “We want voting” “we want voting” and “Andhra ke Dushmano Sharm Karo, Sharm Karo”.
Amid pandemonium, CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri engaged in a duel with Jaitley on why he did not stop the Bill when it was brought in the House on August 7 last year. The Bill had been discussed and the
government had even replied in the last session, but it could not be voted since there was no quorum. Before Jaitley came to the House to take a stand, junior parliamentary affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi decried the Congress for deliberately raking up the issue for the second day to sabotage the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill.
He asserted that Andhra is only an excuse of the Congress as its whole game is to stop development of the states and the Adivasis by not allowing the afforestation bill to distribute the money to the states
that has piled up with the Centre. Even Andhra Pradesh would have got Rs 2300 if this bill had been passed, he added. Congress said they would not compromise with an adamant government that is not ready to fulfill the special status promise given by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha to Andhra Pradesh at the time of passage of the bill for bifurcating the state to create a separate Telangana state.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, however, said there could be still a deal on the Andhra issue as the Congress MP can withdraw the private member’s Bill if the government agrees to immediately bring an official Bill to grant the special status to Andhra Pradesh.
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 "Arun Jaitley")
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