In a novel protest against what he called “stifling of voice” by the Speaker, leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh Assembly YS Jaganmohan Reddy read out his speech on the Budget at a media conference. A day after 8 MlAs of the YSR Congress were suspended from the House for three days for stalling the proceedings and showing disrespect to the Chair, Jaganmohan Reddy said that he chose the media to air his views as the public was the final judge. “I was forced to put forth my points in front of the media because the mike was frequently moved away from me causing interruptions,” he said.
Jagan also took to the Twitter to express his feelings. “It was not my voice, my mike that was cut. It was the voice of the people. Your mike that was cut!! (sic)” Reacting to the AP Budget for 2015-16, he said it had fudged figures and wrongful presentation of facts. “The State Government jacked up the accounts and fudged the figures to show the total expenditure as Rs1.12 lakh crores. The non-plan expenditure was shown Rs11,000 crore less. This kind of figure fudging would show the AP Government in poor light at the national level,” he said.
Targeting Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu he said that even ten months after the polls, no election promise has been fulfilled. On Polavaram project, Jagan said that the Government claimed Rs1,000 crore was allocated to the project. "Of this Rs750 crore was from the Central Government under AIBP scheme. For Pattiseema Rs1,600 crore was allocated. But no details were given for Pattiseema. So, it is clear that the Government wants to diver Polavaram funds for Pattiseema", he alleged.
Holding the State Government responsible for the continuing suicides by farmers Jagan said that the State Government had not released 45 per cent of the input subsidy causing distress to the farmers. Rs50,000 crore was the target for agriculture loans for this year. But as on September 2014 only Rs13,840 crore loans were released. For the remaining the farmers were forced to approach private money lenders, he said. The Naidu Government also failed to keep its promise of loan waiver, Jagan alleged.
The current Budget Session has seen no hold on barred confrontation between the ruling Telugu Desam and Opposition YSR Congress and the latter has not spared even the Speaker calling him names including the "agent of the ruling party". YSRCP has also given a notice of No Confidence motion against the Speaker Kodela Sivaprasad Rao.
Reacting to the use of harsh language by some Opposition members against him, the Speaker said that action will be taken against such members as per the rules and regulations. "I will discharge my duties to conduct the proceedings of the House", he said.