AIADMK members suspended in LS for protesting

As many as 24 AIADMK members were suspended by Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday.

They were suspended for five sittings for protesting and creating ruckus continuously in the House over the Cauvery issue.

Meanwhile, members from the AIADMK and the DMK were asked to leave the House in Rajya Sabha when they disrupted the proceedings.

Soon after the Lok Sabha reconvened the AIADMK members trooped into the well with placards and some even flinging torn pieces of papers towards the table where Lok Sabha secretariat officials sit during the proceedings.

A visibly peeved Sumitra suspended 24 members of the AIADMK under rule 374 (A) that allows the Lok Sabha speaker to suspend members in the event of grave disorder occasioned by a member coming into the well of the House or abusing the rules of the House, among other things.

The AIADMK has 37 members in the Lok Sabha.

In Rajya Sabha, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu ordered members of the AIDMK and the DMK to leave the House for the day when they continued to protest in the well over the Cauvery issue.

The Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned twice in the afternoon amid din over the issue and finally for the day, minutes after it reassembled at 3 PM when the members from Tamil Nadu continued their protest opposing the Mekedatu project on Cauvery river.

The protest by these members prompted Naidu to invoke Rule 255, asking over a dozen members of both parties from Tamil Nadu to leave the House for the day.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Goel also requested the members from Tamil Nadu to allow the Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari to deliver his statement on the issue.

However, the members from AIADMK continued their protest in the well, with four DMK members, the Chairman asked the AIADMK and the DMK members to leave for the day and adjourned the House.

When the House resumed, the DMK and the AIADMK members again trooped into the well shouting slogans. Then deputy chairman adjourned the House for the day.

Later in the day, Naidu held meetings with leaders of various parties and asked the government to find a solution to the Mekedatu dam issue.

The Upper House failed to transact any significant business since the start of the Winter Session on December 11.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Goel has told them that Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will talk to the AIADMK and the DMK leaders.