Recognising new legislators is a huge problem for Andhra officials

Hyderabad: With a record 50 per cent new faces in the 13th Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, officials say they will find it difficult to recognise them as they show up for the first session of the assembly.

They have requested all new members to carry their election certificate when attending the session.

"With 147 of the 294-member house being new faces, it is not easy to recognise all of them," said K Roshaiah, minister for finance and legislative affairs.

"Hence I urge all the members to carry the certificates issued to them by the returning officer declaring them elected as members. As per the rules, a member can be invited to take the oath, as member of the House, only after he deposits the certificate with the Speaker's office," he said.

However, the rules was not strictly implemented for senior members in the past.

The other challenge the assembly staff, specially security personnel, are faced with is the turning up of large number of family members, relatives and supporters who will come to see new members take oath.

"As the gallery has a capacity for 120 people, we have decided to restrict the number of passes to five per member," said Roshaiah.

Since members will take the oath in alphabetical order, only family members and supporters of first 30 to take oath will be allowed into the gallery.