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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
Thirty-five Congress legislators were suspended for the day from the Andhra Pradesh assembly for obstructing house proceedings.
They were protesting against the government's refusal to pay ex-gratia to the families of farmers who committed suicide in the drought-ravaged district of Anantapur.
Speaker K Pratibha Bharathi ordered the suspension of the Congress members, barring leader of the opposition Dr Y S Rajasekahr Reddy, after a debate on the spate of suicides by farmers in Anantapur. The house earlier witnessed acrimonious scenes for almost four hours, leading to its adjournment for almost an hour.
Congress members squatted in the well of the house and on the way to the speaker's podium. They displayed placards, even as Minister for Agriculture Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao rejected their demand for ex-gratia of Rs 100,000 each to the families of the 74 farmers who committed suicide.
The agitated Congress members were in no mood to relent. And so the speaker asked the legislative affairs minister to move a motion for their suspension for the rest of the day.
However, the members refused to leave the house and marshals were called in to remove them physically.
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