Lok Sabha adjourned for the day amid disruptions (Third Lead)

The Lok Sabha lost the second last day of the winter session on Thursday to disruptions, with the opposition benches demanding a debate on demonetisation and the treasury benches insisting on a discussion on the AgustaWestland helicopter deal.

In the din and ruckus, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya introduced the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which would amend the Payment of Wages Act to facilitate cashless payment of salaries.

As the house met, opposition members were on their feet while members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) waved a newspaper clipping and also raised their voices.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan warned members against displaying papers in the house before adjourning the house till noon. The house met again only to witness more din.

The opposition members blamed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for obstructing the debate.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said his party is ready for discussion on demonetisation immediately without any voting or under any rule.

Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay also urged the Chair to take up the discussion.

"There is one more day left before the end of the session. A discussion could have been initiated, without any rules," he said.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader A.P. Jithender Reddy, meanwhile, said he should be allowed to speak as he has started the discussion on demonetisation under Rule 193.

"Every party has problem with implementation of demonetisation... I was not allowed to speak," Reddy said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar raised the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal issue and said the names of Congress leaders were mentioned in middleman Christian Michel's diary.

He also mentioned the sting operation by the India Today group which showed leaders from the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (the BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), caught on camera at their party offices, negotiating terms for changing demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

This further irked the opposition members and the ruckus grew louder, following which Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the house for the day.

Thursday was the second last day of the winter session, which opened on November 16 and would conclude on Friday.

--IANS

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