As soon as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee concluded his Budget speech, Janata Dal (United) president and Bihar MP Sharad Yadav stood up and protested against the lack of any special allocation for relief and rehabilitation of the people affected by the disastrous flood in river Kosi last year. He was joined by other JD (U) MPs.
BJP MP Shahnawaz Hussain also stood up and protested against no mention about Bihar in the Finance Minister’s budget-speech.
The NDA MPs walked out from the LS just moments before the Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House.
What added to the ire of the Bihar MPs is the fact that the Finance Minister has made an allocation of Rs 1000 crore for rebuilding the infrastructure destroyed by the Cyclone Aila in West Bengal.
Mukherjee, himself, has been elected from West Bengal.
“We have nothing to say against the allocation for cyclone-affected areas in West Bengal, but he should not have forgotten that the devastating flood in Kosi had wrecked havoc in Bihar,” Yadav told media-persons outside the Parliament later.
Earlier, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad too interrupted the Finance Minister when he was delivering the budget speech.
DH News Service
Published 06 July 2009, 17:20 IST