Parliament disrupted, Lok Sabha adjourned for the day

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day Wednesday as members in both houses of parliament staged noisy protests over various issues including Telangana and food prices.

Both houses lost their question hour as disturbances broke out within minutes after they met for the day's proceedings.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned after members from the Seemandhra region shouted slogans against the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana, drowning out the question hour.

Members also raised the issues of price rise and deaths of children in relief camps housing Muslim riot victims in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.

Speaker Meira Kumar first adjourned the house till 12 noon. Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha following which Chairman M. Hamid Ansari also adjourned the house till 12 noon.

When the Lok Sabha met at noon, members again resorted to protests over a parliamentary report on 2G spectrum allocation, food prices as well as attacks on Tamil fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy.

Speaker Meira Kumar said she was "compelled" to adjourn the house again.
She also told the house that she had received notices for a no-confidence motion against the government from several members.

As the din continued, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day. In the Rajya Sabha, when the house met at 12 noon, the BSP demanded that that 17 more castes be brought into the Other Backward Class category. The BSP members were supported by the Samajwadi Party.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader M. Venkiah Naidu meanwhile demanded a discussion on the Joint Parliamentary Committee report on the 2G spectrum allocation.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien's repeated pleas to restore order were not heeded to, following which the chair adjourned the upper house till 2 p.m.

This is the fifth day of the short winter session with 12 working days. No major business has been transacted in parliament so far.