Party MLAs flay TRS Ministers for not maintaining decorum

HYDERABAD July 05 2005: Congress legislators from Telangana demanded that the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, and the party high command accept the resignations submitted by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) Ministers.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, the Congress MLAs, G. Chinna Reddy, N. Indrakaran Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu, and others criticised the TRS Ministers for not observing the "minimum decency of informing the Chief Minister about their decision to resign from the Cabinet and going straightaway to the Governor, Sushil Kumar Shinde".

The TRS Ministers had behaved in an undemocratic manner right from their induction into the State Cabinet and their current move to submit resignations was aimed at gaining political mileage, they said.

While the Cabinet needed collective responsibility, the TRS Ministers never raised any issues inside the Cabinet meetings.

Instead, they continued criticism of the Government outside, targeting Dr. Reddy in particular, they added.

The Congress legislators said they would henceforth not tolerate any criticism of the Chief Minister by the TRS. "We have been patient for the last 13 months. But we will not tolerate any attempts by the TRS to stall developmental works anymore."

Describing as `illogical' the reasons like location of the Pulichintala project put forth by the TRS to justify its action, they said all the decisions were taken in the Cabinet meetings.

"Why did they not raise the issues in the Cabinet meetings if they are committed to the Telangana cause?" they questioned.