Opposition parties on Friday stalled the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha for 10 minutes over the absence of Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister M K Alagiri from the House,a day after the matter was raised in the Lok Sabha. AIADMK member V Maitreyan today sought to know from Chairman Hamid Ansari whether the DMK leader,who is currently abroad,had sought permission of the House before absenting himself. As soon as Maitreyans turn came to ask a supplementary to a question pertaining to the ministry,he said,I would like to know whether a minister (without taking Alagiris name) who is normally absent from the House and is currently abroad,has taken the Chairs permission before proceeding on leave. Ansari asked Maitreyan to ask his supplementary and the matter of absence could be discussed later in his chamber. Maitreyan,however,kept insisting on whether the minister had sought permission before going on leave. He was joined by Prakash Jawadekar,Rudra Narayan Pany and Vinay Katiyar (all BJP). They too sought to know why the minister was always absent. Pany went to the extent of saying that it has been a year since the UPA came back to power but Alagiri has never come to the House. While the Opposition members kept raising the issue despite the Chairs pleas to allow the Question Hour to proceed,Rajiv Shukla,Santosh Bagrodia,V Hanumantha Rao and T Subbarami Reddy (all Congress) insisted that when minister of state Srikant Jena was replying to the question,there was no point raising the issue. Noisy scenes prevailed when T Siva (DMK) and Congress members took exception to Maitreyan not asking his supplementary question. They were countered by BJP members,who again raised the issue of Alagiris absence. Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley pointed out that week after week the Opposition has been raising this issue. All ministers are accountable to Parliament. However,in this case,are we accepting the position that one minister is not accountable to Parliament. If this is the case,then we can proceed with Question Hour. To this,Ansari said,This is a wider issue,which needs to be discussed,but not during Question Hour. Jaitley,however,said that at some stage the Chairman will have to see the fact that one minister is not accountable to the House. DMK leader and Telecom Minister A Raja objected to the remark,while Minister of State in Prime Ministers Office Prithviraj Chavan said a deputy minister is authorised to reply to supplementaries.
