Congress MPs from Telangana disrupt Lok Sabha
By IANSWednesday, February 23, 2011
NEW DELHI - Noisy scenes and frequent disruptions returned to the Lok Sabha Tuesday as some Congress members Wednesday shouted slogans and flashed placards demanding that a Telangana state be carved out of Andhra Pradesh.
Congress MPs Ponnam Prabhakar, M. Jagannath, G. Vivekanand and others from the Telangana region shouted slogans as soon as the house met at 11 a.m. and demanded that they be allowed to raise the issue. The house was repeatedly adjourned on the protracted issue of statehood for Telangana.
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is not an elected member of the Lok Sabha, was attending the session, Speaker Meira Kumar tried to convince the protesting members that the issue could be raised during the Zero Hour.
When the MPs persisted with their noisy protests, Meira Kumar adjourned the house for about 20 minutes.
Members returned to the house at 11.30 a.m., and so did the noisy scenes.
Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj intervened and demanded that the government should bring the Telangana legislation during the budget session.
She said the issue was too important to be ignored as the life in the Andhra Pradesh region has been paralysed for the second day over the demand for a bill in parliament for the formation of a separate Telangana state.
“Why are the ruling MPs shouting slogans? This is because everything in Telangana is stuck, employees are on a pen-down strike… Nothing is working there and if anything functions that is rubber bullets,” she said.
Swaraj said the matter could be “resolved now if the prime minister promises that the Telangana bill will be brought to parliament in the ongoing budget session”.
“We will get the bill passed with our members supporting it,” she thundered, as protests grew louder.
AIADMK’s Munisamy Thambidurai, who was chairing the session in the absence of Speaker Meira Kumar after the first disruption, adjourned the house till noon.
But the chaos continued when the house reassembled at noon, and the speaker adjourned the house again till 2 p.m.
