Vijayawada, September 22, 2022: Thirteen Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs were suspended by Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Thammineni Sitharam on Wednesday after they raised slogans, tore proposed bills and stormed the podium, protesting the state government’s move to rename Dr NTR University of Health Sciences as Dr YSR University.
The university was set up as University of Health Sciences during the regime of N T Rama Rao, who founded it and inaugurated it in April 1986. After his death, the university was named after him in 1998.
On Wednesday, the last day of the Assembly session, the ruling YSRCP government moved to table the bill on changing the name of the university, saying it was the late Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who introduced free health care for the poor by introducing the Aarogyasri scheme.
The move prompted protests by TDP MLAs, who raised slogans against the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government, saying that welfare schemes were in a crisis in the state. Shouting “Shame, Shame”, “NTR amar rahe” and “Johar NTR”, the TDP MLAs tore the proposed bills and threw them at the Speaker. All of them were suspended for the day – for the fourth time this session.
The Speaker tried to get the MLAs to move away from the podium but they refused to budge and marshals had to be called to physically evict them from the Assembly.
TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu was not present in the house at the time. The TDP also demanded discussions on outbreak of viral fevers in the state, liquor sales, and alleged land deals of YSRCP MLAs that were denied.
Taking objection to the TDP MLAs’ behaviour, ministers Ambati Rambabu and K Narayana Swamy said that there can be a discussion on when the bill to change the name of NTR University is tabled but the TDP MLAs did not relent. YSRCP MLAs accused TDP MLAs of pretending to support NTR while most of them had ditched him when Naidu staged a coup according to the reports published in indianexpress.com. “We are not undermining NTR. We have honoured him more than the TDP by naming a district after him,” Rambabu said.
“The government is setting the wrong precedent here. If this happens today, [later] when there is a change in the government, there will be a flurry of name changes. When TDP was in power, we did not change the names of YSR Horticulture University and YSR Kadapa district,” said TDP MLA Butchaiah Chowdary.
