Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 3 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the third time Wednesday with the opposition taking Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to task over an alleged sugar scam, even as peace returned to the Lok Sabha after disruptions over the fuel price hike.
Pawar was continuously heckled during his 70-minute reply to a short duration discussion on the rising prices of essential commodities, with the opposition led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing him of side-stepping the issue.

Raising a point of order, Ravi Shakar Prasad of the BJP said: “Why is he not replying to the scam? He is evading the issue.”

Presiding officer P.J. Kurien, however, disallowed the point of order following which Pawar said: “I wish to assure the house that not a single kilo of sugar has been imported by the government.”

Angry BJP members, however, stormed the speaker’s podium, following which Kurien adjourned the house at 3.10 p.m. till 4 p.m.

Earlier, the hike in fuel prices forced two adjournments of the Rajya Sabha with the opposition forcefully asking for its roll back and demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement in the house.

Peace returned to the Lok Sabha Wednesday afternoon when the motion of thanks on the president’s address was moved, with an unrelenting opposition having forced two adjournments demanding that the hike in fuel prices be rolled back.

The Lok Sabha resumed, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh present, at 2 p.m. Congress’ Inderjit Singh moved the motion to thank President Pratibha Patil for her address to the joint session of parliament at the beginning of the budget session last week.

Inderjit Singh regretted that the motion of thanks was being moved late due to commotion by opposition members.

“I move the motion with a heavy heart. Because the president’s institution is apolitical. It is the institution nurtured and cultured in the last 60 years,” the Congress MP from Gurgaon said.

“The motion should have been moved earlier. It didn’t happen (because) there was some kind of commotion. Parties had compulsion, electoral compulsions perhaps,” he said, referring to continuous disruptions of the house by the opposition over rising prices.

President Patil had addressed the joint session of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha Feb 22 - the first day of the session.

Earlier in the day, the house saw two disruptions. As soon as members convened at noon after an earlier adjournment, opposition MPs were on their feet and walked purposefully towards the speaker’s podium.

Deputy Speaker Karia Munda appealed to members to allow parliament to function but it fell on deaf ears as a determined opposition kept shouting, “Yeh sarkar nikammi hain (This government is useless).”

Realising no business could be transacted in the din, Munda adjourned the House till 2 p.m.

When the house convened in the morning for question hour after a four-day Holi break, Samajwadi party members went up to the speaker’s podium shouting slogans against the fuel price rise. Main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members followed suit.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar sensed the mood of the opposition MPs and adjourned the house for an hour.