Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Wednesday described the issue of rising food prices as “extremely important” but rejected the opposition demand of adjourning all other business to discuss the matter.
“I am bound by the rules of this house. The rules of the house and the past rulings do not allow me to admit (adjournment) notices,” Meira Kumar said, rejecting the opposition plea for postponing all business in the Lok Sabha to pave the way for a debate on rising food prices on a priority basis.

The issue also led to a brief disruption of the house after MPs from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Samajwadi Party, the Shiv Sena, the Left parties, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and other opposition parties protested the decision.

The two houses of parliament have been witnessing continuous disruptions since Tuesday over the spiralling prices of essential commodities.

Notices of adjournment of the business were given by Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, BJP’s Gopinath Munde, Left leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and Basudeb Acharia, RJD’s Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, JD-U’s Sharad Yadav and others.

“Honourable members,” the speaker said, “I have carefully examined them (notices) in terms of the rules of the house, as well as precedents, in (the) last two days and have also heard the MPs.”

She described price rise as “a very serious issue”.

“The whole country is concerned about it and is looking up to parliament to find a solution. I must also add that the chair is equally concerned about the burning issue of price situation.”

Meira Kumar said the notices of adjournment were not admissible under the rules.

“Rule 56 says that a definite matter of urgent public importance may be discussed by adjourning the business of the house. As per these rulings, the term ‘urgent matter of public importance’ must have arisen suddenly in the manner of an emergency. Rule 58(iii) says that the motion shall be restricted to a specific matter of recent occurrence,” the speaker said.

However, the issue had not arisen suddenly in the manner of an emergency, she noted. “This house had discussed it in the last session. So it cannot be held that the issue is one of recent occurrence or urgent in the sense in which it is used in the rule.”

She said the house would discuss the subject which “is extremely important”.

“It is the duty of this house to discuss it. Members want a detailed and focused discussion on price inflation. I will allow a discussion on it today itself. It can start after the railway budget,” said Meira Kumar.

This infuriated the opposition members and they began shouting slogans, forcing the speaker to adjourn the house briefly.

The Lok Sabha had a nearly 45-minute debate on the admissibility of the adjournment motion, which entails voting.