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Lok Sabha adjourned for the day

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day today without transacting any business amid uproar following protests by the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha members who demanded resignation of the government for rising prices and its alleged failure on other fronts.

When the House reassembled at 1400 hours after an adjournment in the morning over the same issue, repeated pleas of Speaker G M C Balayogi for restoration of decorum failed to evoke any response from the agitated Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal members who stormed into the well and raised anti-government slogans.

Earlier, the winter session of Parliament began on a stormy note as the Lok Sabha was adjourned till 1400 hrs amid noisy scenes.

Balayogi adjourned the House after about 25 minutes, when his repeated appeals to the members to maintain order went unheeded.

Soon after the obituary references and the introduction of the Mongolian parliamentary delegation, the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal members trooped into the well, demanding the resignation of the BJP-led government at the Centre. They continued raising slogans like 'Vajpayee istipha do' (Prime Minister Vajpayee should resign).

The speaker called Leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar to speak. Pawar said he had given a notice seeking suspension of the question hour and instead a discussion on the abnormal price rise situation. He was still on his feet, when the RJD and the Samajwadi Party members rushed into the well to make their point.

The House expressed its ''deep sense of grief'' at the death of 180 pilgrims near Pithoragarh on August 18 this year in a landslide and those who were killed in the Khanna train tragedy recently.

The members condoled the death of seven of their former colleagues -- Nikunja Behari Chaudhury, Dwaipayan Sen, Narsingh Yadav, Lakhan Lal Gupta, Banamali Babu, J Rameshwar Rao and T Abdul Wahid.

UNI

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