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Budget session begins with price rise din

Last Updated 07 July 2014, 21:08 IST

The opening day of the Budget Session in the Lok Sabha on Monday witnessed noisy scenes as the Congress and the rest of the Opposition almost paralysed the House, clamouring for adjournment motions on price rise and rail fare hike.

The Lower House of Parliament was adjourned twice before lunch hour as the Opposition was not ready to relent even after Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that the government was not ready for debates on the issues under Rule  193.

The House was adjourned for the day soon after lunch, as the Opposition was insistent on a debate which entailed voting.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan repeatedly told the agitating MPs of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Samajwadi Party that she had rejected their notices for adjournment motions. 

She offered to allow a discussion under Rule 193, which is a half-hour debate sans any motion or voting. Her appeals, however, failed to pacify the protesting MPs, who were raising slogans from the well of the House. 
As soon as the Speaker commenced the Question Hour after obituary references, Leader of the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, and deputy leader, Amarinder Singh, rose to press for an adjournment motion, the notice for which had been submitted by Singh to the Speaker. 

Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia, meanwhile, led his party MPs in raising slogans, holding the BJP Government responsible for spiralling prices of essential commodities.  TMC MPs led by Kalyan Banerjee too came to the well of the House and raised slogans against the government for the recent rail fare hike. The members of the SP and the NCP joined them. 

“The NDA  government has given the country unemployment and price rise,” NCP MP Supriya Sule said, when the Speaker asked her to pose her question listed for the day to Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. 

Notwithstanding the clamour from the Opposition, Mahajan tried to continue with the Question Hour and appealed to the protesting MPs not to disrupt the House proceedings. She finally adjourned the House till noon.

The House witnessed the same ruckus when it reassembled.  “The government is ready for a debate under Rule 193 on all the issues… The government has nothing to hide. Everyone knows who is responsible (for price rise),” said Naidu. 

Kharge, however, said that the Congress wanted  only an adjournment motion under Rule 56, which allows for setting aside the House business to discuss a matter of urgent public importance. The Speaker then adjourned the House till 2 pm.

The uproar continued even after the House reassembled. Mahajan then adjourned the House for the day. 

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(Published 07 July 2014, 21:07 IST)

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