Telangana issue stalls Parliament, Lok Sabha adjourned till tomorrow amid chaos

As soon as the two Houses met for the day, it was repeat of scenes witnessed last week.

Some Samajwadi Party members also raised slogans on the communal violence bill, but they could not be heard in din. SAD members kept standing with placards demanding that Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi name those behind the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Speaker Meira Kumar asked Environment Minister M Veerappa Moily to table his reply to a starred question he was reading out as members were unable to hear him. Moily was explaining steps taken to clean rivers.

The Speaker’s repeated appeals to the members to return to their seats evoked no response forcing her not to take up notices for no-confidence motion moved by several members, including V Aruna Kumar of ruling Congress.

Minister K S Rao, who is from Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh, was also seen raising some issue, but could not be heard in din. Amid pandemonium, the Speaker adjourned the House till tomorrow.

In the Rajya Sabha, ruckus over Telangana and other issues flagged by slogan shouting TDP, DMK and AIADMK members in the Well led to two adjournments, including one within a minute after the House met for the day.

TDP members protested against bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh holding placards, while issues raised by DMK and AIADMK MPs could not be heard in the din.

Some Congress members too raised slogans for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. In the prevailing chaos, V Maitreyan (AIADMK) was seen tearing off a piece of paper.

President’s appeal

President Pranab Mukherjee reminded Parliamentarians of their responsibility as he told them to “do some introspection” over Parliament’s functioning.

Reminding their responsibility to the Parliamentarians, the President said: “Parliament’s function is to debate, dissent and decide and not get disrupted.”

The extended Winter session of Parliament has been stalled so far ever since it began on Wednesday. Both the Houses could not transact any business last week following disruptions with the Telangana, caste-reservation and a number of other issues stalling proceedings.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha saw noisy scenes last week as the controversy over separate state of Telangana issue of caste-reservation lead to pandemonium in the Parliament.

The government has announced that it will take up the Bill to carve out a separate Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh in the session that will conclude on February 21.

Andhra Pradesh has remained sharply divided on regional lines on the Telangana issue and the Bill is coming to Parliament after being rejected by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

(With PTI inputs)