The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the 21st day in a row on Thursday, after the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress traded charges over who was responsible for the washout of the Budget session, and members from Tamil Nadu protested over the Cauvery river dispute.
The second half of the Budget Session concludes on Friday.
Soon after the House met on Thursday, members from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam trooped into the Well and raised slogans demanding that the Cauvery Management Board, which will decide how Tamil Nadu and Karnataka share the river water, be set up immediately, PTI reported.
As chaos continued, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till noon. The protests continued when the house reconvened.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said his party and the entire Opposition were ready to discuss the no-confidence motions they moved against the government. “We are ready for discussion. Kindly allow us to move the no-confidence motion to discuss various issues,” he said.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the BJP and the NDA have been ready for a discussion on the motion too, and alleged that the Congress was against the debate.
However, the AIADMK members continued to protest in the House. Mahajan asked them to return to their seats. “I am duty bound to place the no-confidence motion. I have to do a head count. I have not been able to take up notices on the no-confidence motion,” she said, before adjourning the house for the day as the protests continued.
The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned till 2 pm after protests by Opposition members. Before it was adjourned, Trinamool Congress member Shukhendu Shekar Roy raised a point of order questioning Union minister Jitendra Singh’s decision to move the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2013 on Wednesday. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu corrected the House records to state that the Bill that was taken up on Wednesday had not been passed by the Lok Sabha yet, the Hindustan Times reported.
Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party members protested near the chairman’s podium shouting “Save Andhra Pradesh”. AIADMK members brought up the Cauvery Management Board issue in the Rajya Sabha too.
The House was adjourned for the day again after it reconvened at 2 pm.
Washout session
Continuous protests have marred the second half of the Budget session, which began on March 5. Both houses have has been unproductive because of protests by several Opposition parties with different demands.
In earlier sessions, the Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress protested to demand special category category status for Andhra Pradesh, and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi protested for more job quotas in Telangana.
The DMK and AIADMK have demanded that the Cauvery Management Board be set up immediately, while over the past week, the Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party MPs brought up the Supreme Court judgment on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
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